When I first heard that Cell C had been ranked joint number one for reliability, I treated it with cautious respect. In my earlier piece, I framed it as a symbolic moment, not because Cell C suddenly became the country’s best network, but because it had clawed its way back into the conversation. Sitting down with Jorge Mendes, the man steering this resurrection, I realised the story runs deeper. It is not just about signal strength or VoLTE acronyms. It is about reimagining what it means to be a South African telco in 2025.
The factory you do not see
Mendes uses a bread roll analogy that has stuck with me. Nobody cares which factory baked it, as long as it is fresh and soft when you take that first bite. That is how he sees connectivity. Customers do not need to know whether their call travelled over red, yellow, or blue towers. They just need it to work.
Mendes’ argument lands with the force of common sense. For decades, South African operators competed by planting more towers like flags on conquered territory. Mendes thinks that era is done. With near-universal population coverage, Cell C chose not to outspend its rivals but to outsmart them. Why build another factory when you can use the empty ovens next door? It is a simple idea, but one that rattles an industry obsessed with ownership.
“If the transaction happens with reliability and quality, customers do not care which fiber or microwave carried it.”
— Jorge Mendes, CEO, Cell C
Culture as an operating system
Technology alone does not explain Cell C’s shift, infact the tech story on it’s own fails without the people story. I have walked into their offices, spoken to staff, and seen a culture that feels different. They operate under an acronym called THIS, meaning Transparency, Honesty, Integrity, Simplicity. It is easy to dismiss corporate values as wallpaper, but Mendes has turned them into operating principles.
“Unlimited leave is not about being different for the sake of it. It’s about trusting people to deliver. If you treat adults like adults, they’ll give you their best.”
— Jorge Mendes, CEO, Cell C
Unlimited leave is a good example. On paper it sounds reckless. In practice, it works because it is tied to signed KPIs and trust. The signal it sends is powerful: you are treated like an adult here. People pick up paper in the hallway not because they are told to, but because they feel ownership. That kind of culture is not measured in dropped calls, but it shows up in how franchisees suddenly brag about their stores, how MVNO partners like Capitec or FNB lean in instead of pulling away.
Fixing the weakest link
Reliability is only as strong as its weakest link, and for Cell C that link was voice. A Mybroadband voice network quality report showed them to be laggards in the Free State, but Mendes insists it was a snapshot taken mid-transition. Today, they are running a cloud-native VoLTE solution on AWS, the first in Africa. Whether the results back that up will depend on fresh provincial data. But the intent is clear: leapfrog instead of playing catch-up.
The money move
Then there is the financial surgery. For years, Cell C was seen as a burden dragging down Blue Label. The plan now is to flip that script, convert funding instruments into equity, buy back the postpaid business, and list a Cell C with zero debt on its balance sheet. That is not just a technical fix. Debt has been Cell C’s ghost for years. If they exorcise it, they buy themselves a new story: That of an agile, cash-generating challenger ready for the JSE.
The target is late 2025 or early 2026. The risk, of course, is execution. Markets are often unforgiving, and investor appetite is not guaranteed. But if they pull it off, Cell C will not just be reliable, it will be sustainable.
“We’ve positioned ourselves as a light-capex, cash-generative business. That’s how you build a sustainable challenger.”
— Jorge Mendes, CEO, Cell C
My take
What struck me in this interview is that Mendes does not sell Cell C as the best network in South Africa. He sells it as a network that belongs again. The ambition is not to boast about the fastest speeds or biggest coverage. It is to be an ally, the network you can count on without paying a premium, the network that lets a student in Ulundi or a small shop owner in Limpopo trust their connection.
That matters, it matters a lot. In a country where connectivity is a lifeline, reliability is dignity. Cell C’s second act is still fragile. Roaming contracts can be tested, surplus capacity can shrink, and perception does not change overnight. But for the first time in a long time, Cell C is not asking to be forgiven for its past. It is asking to be judged on what it delivers today. And that, to me, feels like the real signal worth noticing.
Cell C at a Glance
Cloud voice
ng-voice on AWS, replacing legacy Atos
RAN model
Virtual RAN over partner networks. Cell C retains its own core, billing, OSS, BSS, and CEM
Stores
52 refurbished since the August 2024 brand relaunch
MVNO and enterprise
44 new partners in two years, including Capitec, FNB, Standard Bank Mobile, and Old Mutual Mobile
Listing plan
Convert Blue Label instruments to equity. Blue Label expected to hold 25–30% post-listing. Target late 2025 or early 2026, worst case 2026
Postpaid integration
Buying back CEC to run postpaid end to end. Huawei next-gen billing live since August 2024
People
Unlimited leave with KPI discipline. Core values codified as THIS: Transparency, Honesty, Integrity, Simplicity
*This feature is a GeekHub Exclusive
