It’s funny how, when asking for someone’s mobile number, people react with surprise when they are given one beginning with “083” or “082”.

Old school, ne?

The first opening digits of MTN and Vodacom respectively, from way back when, it should be little surprise that the two networks are the dominant players in South Africa’s mobile market.

In fact, the two companies account for “three quarters (75%) of the country’s 89 million SIM connections,” reports Business Tech:

Analysing reported mobile subscriber figures for full year 2017 (or interim 2018 for Telkom), Vodacom maintains its dominance in the market, with the number two MTN losing ground. Both Cell C and Telkom have inched up over the past year.

However, competing with the mobile networks is a growing mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) market, which includes the likes of Me&You Mobile, Pick n Pay, MRP Mobile and others:

Most of these networks run on the Cell C network, however, and the mobile operator pegged this at 1.5 million subscribers in the same report.

This segment in particular has seen a steady climb as more MVNOs entered in the market, and appears to have added 1 million subscribers among the MVNOs since reaching the 500,000 peak of Virgin Mobile in 2013/14.

For 2017, below is a graph showing how many subscribers each network reported having between 2011 and 2017:

With a total of 88,8 million mobile connections in the country, the number isn’t necessarily reflective of the “unique mobile subscribers” though, but rather the “number of active SIMs, attached either to multiple devices or machines”:

The total reflects the approximation of South Africa’s mobile market as reported by GSMA Intelligence’s 2018 update. According to the group, South Africa has about 89.4 million mobile connections, giving it a penetration rate of 157%.

Of these connections, over 86% are on prepaid, while 58% are broadband connections.

Here’s a graph showing 2017’s local mobile market share split:

Hands up if you’ve been with Vodacom since the beginning, and still have that 082 number. Time to let go? Never.

[source:businesstech]