South Africa’s mobile industry rated fourth fastest growing

SOUTH Africa’s mobile phone industry has grown immensely in recent years.
According to a recent survey, the country is now the world’s fourth fastest growing cellular communications market, accounting for 80% of the population, which equals more than 39 million users.

This represents a market value of US$2.4 billion. It is by far the fastest growing such industry in the whole African continent.

“South Africa offers an extraordinary penetration rate in this burgeoning market, one of the highest in the developing world,” said the report.

Cutthroat competition characterizes the mobile phone industry in South Africa where three mobile networks, Vodacom (the biggest in the country in terms of subscribers), Mobile Telephone Networks (MTN) and Cell C, operate.
Last year, cellphone number portability was introduced across the three networks.

This enables subscribers to change from one network to another while retaining their cellular phone numbers.

Mthulisi Sibanda