In this Smart Money with Alishia Seckam interview, Cell C CEO Jorge Mendes discusses Cell C’s network strategy and how this should lead to a superior customer experience.

Mendes is one of South Africa’s most respected telecommunications executives. He spent 23 years at Vodacom in various management positions and helped the company show strong growth.

Given his extensive industry experience, Mendes is well-positioned to guide Cell C to a sustainable future. He has already made significant strides towards improving its operations.

In this interview, Jorge Mendes begins by discussing why he chose to move from Vodacom to Cell C.

He then discusses how Cell C’s business stabilisation efforts are going, noting that while the journey will likely take 3-5 years, his team has already achieved significant success in the first ten months.

After revealing these successes, Mendes discusses Cell C’s network strategy, which swaps the Capex cost of building its own network for the Opex model of buying world-class services from the other top networks.

He explains how this gives Cell C the flexibility to focus on commercial imperatives like delivering a superior user experience, growing its MVNO offering, and building other mutually beneficial partnerships. He concludes the interview by discussing his vision for the future of Cell C.