South Africa - Key Statistics, Telecom Market and Regulatory Overviews

Synopsis

South Africa’s telecom sector boasts the continent’s most advanced networks in terms of technology deployed and services provided. In a virtually saturated voice market, four mobile networks are competing for market share in the next growth wave, mobile broadband. Following years of delays with its licensing, the second fixed-line operator Neotel is gaining market share in competition with the incumbent, Telkom SA. This, in combination with other sweeping liberalisation measures – also delayed by years – has changed the country’s telecoms landscape fundamentally and brought prices down. Under a converging regulatory regime, hundreds of alternative service providers are pushing into the market with converged services.

The end of Telkom’s monopoly on international submarine fibre-optic cables has reduced the cost of telecommunication in South Africa dramatically. Four new cables have reached the country between 2009 and 2011.

Key regulatory events currently shaping the market are the unbundling of the local loop (ULL, or LLU), the staged reduction of interconnect charges, the auctioning of WiMAX and LTE spectrum, and the new requirement for mobile subscribers to register their personal details with service providers.

Companies covered in this report:

Telkom SA, Neotel, Vodacom, MTN, Cell C, Virgin Mobile, Broadband InfraCo, Transtel, Eskom.

Table of Contents

• 1. Synopsis
• 2. Key statistics
• 3. Telecommunications market
  • 3.1 Overview
    • 3.1.1 Fixed-line market
    • 3.1.2 Mobile market
    • 3.1.3 Broadband and Internet market
    • 3.1.4 Convergence and digital media
• 4. Regulatory environment
  • 4.1 Historical background
    • 4.1.1 Network rollout obligations
  • 4.2 Regulatory authority
    • 4.2.1 Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA)
  • 4.3 Telecommunications Amendment Bill
  • 4.4 Regulation of Interception of Communications Act 2002
  • 4.5 Electronic Communications Act and ICASA Amendment Bill
  • 4.6 Converged licensing regime
  • 4.7 New Companies Act
  • 4.8 Universal Service and Access Fund (USAF)
  • 4.9 Interconnection
  • 4.10 Registration of subscriber details
• 5. Telecom sector liberalisation in South Africa
  • 5.1 Overview
  • 5.2 Privatisation of Telkom SA
  • 5.3 Third mobile licence
  • 5.4 Analysis of the SNO licensing process
  • 5.5 Third fixed-line and fourth mobile licence
  • 5.6 PTN licences
  • 5.7 The ‘Big Bang’
    • 5.7.1 Value-Added Network Services (VANS) providers
  • 5.8 Under-Serviced Area Licences (USALs)
    • 5.8.1 Amatole Telecom
    • 5.8.2 Uncertain future
  • 5.9 InfraCo licences
  • 5.10 Number Portability (NP)
  • 5.11 Carrier pre-selection (CPS)
  • 5.12 Local Loop Unbundling (LLU)
  • 5.13 International gateways
  • 5.14 International submarine cables
  • 5.15 Least Cost Routing (LCR)
  • 5.16 Broadcasting licences 2007
  • 5.17 Mobile TV licences 2010
• 6. Spectrum licensing
  • 6.1 WiFi
  • 6.2 WiMAX, LTE
• 7. Related reports

• Table 1 – Country statistics – 2011
• Table 2 – Fixed-line network statistics – 2011
• Table 3 – Internet provider statistics – 2011
• Table 4 – Internet and broadband statistics – 2011
• Table 5 – Mobile statistics – 2011
• Table 6 – National telecommunications authorities
• Table 7 – Telkom SA top five shareholders – December 2011

• Exhibit 1 – VANS – to self-provide or not to self-provide