South Africa Telecoms Market Report

Telecoms, Mobile and Broadband - Statistics and Analyses

Publication Date: December 2023

Report Pages: 226

Analyst: Henry Lancaster

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Summary
Table Of Contents

South African regulator concludes long-awaited spectrum auction

South Africa’s telecom sector boasts one of the most advanced infrastructures on the continent. There has been considerable investment from Telkom, Liquid Intelligence Technologies, Broadband InfraCo, and municipal providers as well as from mobile network operators, such as MTN and Vodacom, all aimed at improving network capabilities. In mid-2021, Vodacom Group announced plans to set up its own InfraCo, merging its own fibre assets with those belonging to two recent acquisitions.

The focus in recent years has been on backhaul capacity and on fibre and LTE networks to extend and improve internet service connectivity. With the ongoing migration to fibre, the incumbent telco Telkom expects to close down its copper network in 2024.

The mobile sector has developed strongly in recent years, partly due to the poor availability and level of service of fixed-line networks, which meant that many people had no alternative to mobile networks for voice and data services.

The multi-spectrum auction was delayed several times due to legal wrangling, and was finally held in March 2022. The delay caused difficulties for network operators, which were forced to refarm spectrum for 3G and LTE use, and provide 5G services on temporary licences. Six qualified bidders acquired spectrum, netting the regulator ZAR14.4 billion in revenues.

In February 2022, Vumatel also acquired a 45% non-controlling stake in HeroTel, a local FttP player as the telco seeks to strengthen its foothold in the South African fibre market. As of February 2022, HeroTel had passed 150,000 homes and businesses, with its internet services live in over 400 South African towns and cities.

The market is shrugging off the impact of the pandemic, which had a significant impact on production and supply chains globally, and saw a slowdown in some network expansions, particularly around 5G.

On the consumer side, spending on telecoms services and devices remains slightly under pressure amid ongoing macroeconomic challenges facing the country. However, the crucial nature of telecom services, both for general communication as well as a tool for home-working, will offset such pressures. In many markets the net effect should be a steady though reduced increased in subscriber growth.

The report also covers the responses of the telecom operators as well as government agencies and regulators as they react to the crisis to ensure that citizens can continue to make optimum use of telecom services. This can be reflected in subsidy schemes and the promotion of tele-health and tele-education, among other solutions.

Key developments

Telkom enters the mobile financial services sector, renegotiates a roaming deal with MTN;
Government initiates plan to provide national broadband coverage by end-2023;
Regulator issues provisional spectrum licences under new regulations introduced as a response to the pandemic, MNOs leverage these to deploy 5G services;
Regulator concludes spectrum auction, raises ZAR14.4 billion;
Virgin Mobile stops trading in South Africa, after 15 years;
Government scraps plans for Wholesale Open Access Network;
Vumatel acquires 45% stake in HeroTel;
Vodacom Group sets up its own InfraCo after acquiring a 30% stake in Vodacom Group, launches its VodaPay m-payment app;
Rain launches standalone 5G network in Cape Town;
Report update includes the regulator's March 2022 report on the ICT sector, operator data to Q1 2022, updated Telecom Maturity Index charts and analyses, recent market developments.

Companies mentioned in this report

Vodacom, MTN (MTN Network Solutions), Cell C, Telkom (Heita, 8ta), Virgin Mobile, Neotel, Atlantic Internet Services, Business Connexion, Internet Solutions, Verizon Business, MWEB, Vox Telecom (DataPro), Sentech, iBurst (WBS, Blue Label), Liquid Intelligence Technologies, Virgin Mobile, Broadband InfraCo, Transtel, Eskom, SEACOM, Transtel, Eskom, SITA, Sentech, Dark Fibre Africa (DFA), FibreCo, eFive, WASACE.

Key statistics
Regional Africa Market Comparison

Market characteristics
Market Leaders
Market Challengers
Market Emergents
TMI vs GDP
Mobile and mobile broadband penetration
Fixed versus mobile broadband penetration

Country overview
Telecommunications market

Market analysis

Regulatory environment

Historical overview
Regulatory authority
Fixed line developments

Telecommunications Act
Telecommunications Amendment Act
Electronic Communications Acts (2005, 2014)
Regulation of Interception of Communications Act 2002
Electronic Communications Act and ICASA Amendment Act
Converged licensing regime
New Companies Act
Universal Service and Access Fund (USAF)
Interconnection

Mobile network developments

Spectrum
Mobile Termination Rates (MTRs)
Mobile Number Portability (MNP)
SIM card registration
Infrastructure sharing
Roaming

Mobile market

Mobile statistics
Mobile voice (VoLTE/Wi-Fi calling)
Mobile infrastructure

5G
4G (LTE)
LTE-U
3G
GSM
Other infrastructure developments

Mobile data

Mobile broadband
Major mobile operators

Vodacom South Africa
MTN South Africa
Cell C
Telkom Mobile
Mobile Virtual Network Enablers (MVNEs)
Mobile Virtual Network Operators (MVNOs)

Mobile content and applications

m-music
CellBook
m-payment
m-banking
m-gaming
m-health
m-advertising
Location-based services (LBS)
Manobi
Mobile social media

Fixed-line broadband market

Market analysis
Community access projects

Microsoft Digital Villages and telecentres
The Smart Cape Access Project

Internet Service Providers Association (ISPA)
Internet Exchange Points (IXP)
Broadband statistics
Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) networks

Wholesale
ADSL2+
VDSL

Fibre-to-the-Premises (FttP) networks
Other fixed broadband services

Broadband over Powerlines (BPL)
Fixed wireless

Digital economy

E-learning
E-government
E-health
E-banking

Fixed network operators

Telkom
Neotel

Telecommunications infrastructure

Overview of the national telecom network
National fibre infrastructure

Broadband InfraCo
Dark Fibre Africa
Vodacom
MTN
FibreCo

International submarine cables

SAT-3/WASC/SAFE
SEACOM
EASSy
WACS
African Coast to Europe (ACE)
SAEx, WASACE
Seaborn
METISS
PEACE

Satellite
Next Generation Networks (NGN)
Municipal networks

Knysna – Africa’s first municipal network

Data centres
Smart infrastructure

Smart cities

Appendix – Historic data
Glossary of abbreviations
Related reports

List of Tables

Table 1 – Top Level Country Statistics and Telco Authorities – South Africa – 2022 (e)
Table 2 – Change in the proportion of households with telecom service by type – 2014 – 2020
Table 3 – Development of Telecom sector investment – 2015 – 2021
Table 4 – Development of telecom sector investment by sector (ZAR million) – 2015 – 2021
Table 5 – Development of telecom sector revenue by service (ZAR billion) – 2015 – 2021
Table 6 – Development of total telecom and broadcasting revenue (ZAR billion) – 2015 – 2021
Table 7 – Change in fixed revenue by type (ZAR million) – 2015 – 2021
Table 8 – Development of mobile sector revenue – 2015 – 2021
Table 9 – Change in mobile revenue by sector (ZAR million) – 2015 – 2021
Table 10 – Development of mobile prepaid revenue by type (ZAR million) – 2015 – 2021
Table 11 – Growth in the number of mobile subscribers and penetration – 2012 – 2027
Table 12 – Change in the number of prepaid and contract mobile subscribers (million) – 2015 – 2021
Table 13 – Change in mobile voice traffic by type (billion minutes) – 2015 – 2021
Table 14 – Telkom LTE subscribers – 2016 – 2018
Table 15 – Increase in the number of LTE devices in service – 2018 – 2021
Table 16 – Development of 4G (WiMAX/LTE) population coverage – 2012 – 2021
Table 17 – Development of 3G population coverage – 2015 – 2021
Table 18 – Growth in the number of M2M connections – 2015 – 2021
Table 19 – Growth in SMS traffic – 2013 – 2020
Table 20 – Growth in the number of active mobile broadband subscribers – 2012 – 2027
Table 21 – Increase in the number of Telkom’s mobile broadband subscribers by type – 2015 – 2021
Table 22 – Growth in Telkom’s mobile broadband revenue – 2015 – 2022
Table 23 – Growth in Telkom’s mobile data traffic – 2015 – 2022
Table 24 – Growth in overall mobile data traffic – 2015 – 2021
Table 25 – Growth in the number of mobile data subscribers – 2015 – 2021
Table 26 – Development of Vodacom South Africa’s mobile revenue (ZAR million) – 2012 – 2022
Table 27 – Growth in the number of Vodacom South Africa’s subscribers and market share – 2012 – 2021
Table 28 – Change in the number of Vodacom South Africa’s prepaid and contract subscribers (million) – 2017 – 2021
Table 29 – Growth in the number of Vodacom South Africa’s mobile data subscribers – 2013 – 2021
Table 30 – Development of Vodacom South Africa’s mobile ARPU (ZAR/subscriber/month) – 2017 – 2021
Table 31 – Change in the number of MTN South Africa’s mobile subscribers and market share – 2012 – 2022
Table 32 – Change in the number of MTN South Africa’s prepaid, contract subscribers (million) – 2013 – 2022
Table 33 – Development of MTN South Africa’s financial data (ZAR million) – 2012 – 2021
Table 34 – Development of MTN South Africa’s mobile ARPU (ZAR / month) – 2013 – 2022
Table 35 – Change in the number of Cell C mobile subscribers – 2013 – 2021
Table 36 – Growth in Cell C’s mobile service revenue – 2013 – 2021
Table 37 – Increase in Cell C’s mobile data revenue – 2016 – 2018
Table 38 – Development of Cell C’s financial data (ZAR billion) – 2016 – 2021
Table 39 – Growth in the number of Telkom’s mobile subscribers – 2012 – 2021
Table 40 – Growth in the number of Telkom’s prepaid and contract mobile subscribers (thousand) – 2015 – 2021
Table 41 – Development of Telkom’s mobile financial data (ZAR million) – 2014 – 2022
Table 42 – Change in Telkom’s annual mobile ARPU (ZAR / month) – 2014 – 2022
Table 43 – Change in fixed internet revenue by type (ZAR million) – 2015 – 2021
Table 44 – Development of the Schools Connected program – 2016 – 2021
Table 45 – Growth in the number of fixed-line broadband subscribers and penetration – 2012 – 2027
Table 46 – Change in the number of fixed broadband subscribers by type (thousand) – 2015 – 2021
Table 47 – Change in the number of Telkom’s broadband subscribers – 2012 – 2021
Table 48 – Growth in Telkom’s fixed data traffic – 2014 – 2022
Table 49 – Change in the number of Telkom’s DSL subscribers by type – 2016 – 2019
Table 50 – Change in Telkom’s fixed copper and fibre broadband subscribers – 2017 – 2021
Table 51 – Increase in the number of Telkom South Africa’s fibre ports – 2017 – 2021
Table 52 – Telkom South Africa fibre premises passed – 2016 – 2019
Table 53 – Growth in the number of fibre broadband subscribers – 2013 – 2021
Table 54 – Change in the number of fixed wireless broadband subscribers – 2017 – 2021
Table 55 – Development of Telkom Group’s financial results (ZAR million) – 2012 – 2022
Table 56 – Change in Telkom Group’s capex by type (ZAR million) – 2017 – 2022
Table 57 – Development of Telkom’s data revenue – 2012 – 2022
Table 58 – Change in the number of fixed lines in service and teledensity – 2012 – 2027
Table 59 – Change in the number of fixed lines in service by type – 2015 – 2021
Table 60 – Decline in fixed-line voice traffic (billion minutes) – 2015 – 2021
Table 61 – Growth in international internet bandwidth – 2014 – 2020
Table 62 – Historic - Mobile subscribers and penetration rate in South Africa – 1999 – 2011
Table 63 – Historic - Vodacom South Africa subscribers and market share – 2002 – 2011
Table 64 – Historic - MTN South Africa subscribers and market share – 2002 – 2011
Table 65 – Historic - Average internet access speed – 2010 – 2015
Table 66 – Historic - Fixed-line broadband subscribers and penetration – 2002 – 2011
Table 67 – Historic - Internet users and penetration rate in South Africa – 1999 – 2015
Table 68 – Historic -Telkom South Africa broadband subscribers – 2003 – 2011
Table 69 – Historic - Telkom fixed broadband subscribers by type – 2016 – 2018
Table 70 – Historic - Telkom South Africa WiMAX subscribers – 2008 – 2014
Table 71 – Historic - Telkom data revenue – 2002 – 2011
Table 72 – Historic - Fixed lines in service and teledensity in South Africa – 2000 – 2011
Table 73 – Historic - International internet bandwidth – 2000 – 2011

List of Charts

Chart 1 – Africa Telecoms Maturity Index – Market Leaders
Chart 2 – Africa – Market Leaders global ranking
Chart 3 – Africa Telecoms Maturity Index – Market Challengers
Chart 4 – Africa – Market Challengers global ranking
Chart 5 – Africa Telecoms Maturity Index – Market Emergents
Chart 6 – Africa – Market Emergents global ranking
Chart 7 – Africa - Telecoms Maturity Index vs GDP per capita
Chart 8 – Africa - mobile subscriber penetration vs mobile broadband penetration
Chart 9 – Africa - fixed and mobile broadband penetration
Chart 10 – Change in the proportion of households with telecom service by type – 2014 – 2020
Chart 11 – Development of telecom sector investment by sector – 2015 – 2021
Chart 12 – Development of telecom sector revenue by service – 2015 – 2021
Chart 13 – Change in fixed revenue by type – 2015 – 2021
Chart 14 – Change in mobile revenue by sector – 2015 – 2021
Chart 15 – Development of mobile prepaid revenue by type – 2015 – 2021
Chart 16 – Growth in the number of mobile subscribers and penetration – 2012 – 2027
Chart 17 – Change in the number of prepaid and contract mobile subscribers – 2015 – 2021
Chart 18 – Change in mobile voice traffic by type – 2015 – 2021
Chart 19 – Development of 4G (WiMAX/LTE) population coverage – 2012 – 2021
Chart 20 – Growth in the number of active mobile broadband subscribers – 2012 – 2027
Chart 21 – Increase in the number of Telkom’s mobile broadband subscribers by type – 2015 – 2021
Chart 22 – Development of Vodacom South Africa’s mobile revenue – 2012 – 2022
Chart 23 – Change in the number of Vodacom South Africa’s prepaid and contract subscribers – 2017 – 2021
Chart 24 – Growth in the number of Vodacom South Africa’s mobile data subscribers – 2013 – 2021
Chart 25 – Development of Vodacom South Africa’s mobile ARPU – 2017 – 2021
Chart 26 – Change in the number of MTN South Africa’s mobile subscribers and market share – 2012 – 2022
Chart 27 – Change in the number of MTN South Africa’s prepaid, contract subscribers – 2013 – 2022
Chart 28 – Development of MTN South Africa’s financial data – 2012 – 2021
Chart 29 – Development of MTN South Africa’s mobile ARPU – 2013 – 2022
Chart 30 – Change in the number of Cell C mobile subscribers – 2013 – 2021
Chart 31 – Growth in Cell C’s mobile service revenue – 2013 – 2021
Chart 32 – Development of Cell C’s financial data – 2016 – 2021
Chart 33 – Growth in the number of Telkom’s prepaid and contract mobile subscribers – 2015 – 2021
Chart 34 – Development of Telkom’s mobile financial data – 2014 – 2022
Chart 35 – Change in Telkom’s mobile ARPU – 2014 – 2022
Chart 36 – Change in fixed internet revenue by type – 2015 – 2021
Chart 37 – Growth in the number of fixed-line broadband subscribers and penetration – 2012 – 2027
Chart 38 – Change in the number of fixed broadband subscribers by type – 2015 – 2021
Chart 39 – Growth in the number of Telkom’s broadband subscribers – 2012 – 2021
Chart 40 – Growth in Telkom’s fixed data traffic – 2014 – 2022
Chart 41 – Change in the number of Telkom’s DSL subscribers by type – 2016 – 2019
Chart 42 – Change in Telkom’s fixed copper and fibre broadband subscribers – 2017 – 2021
Chart 43 – Growth in the number of fibre broadband subscribers – 2013 – 2021
Chart 44 – Development of Telkom Group’s financial results – 2014 – 2022
Chart 45 – Change in Telkom Group’s capex by type – 2017 – 2022
Chart 46 – Change in the number of fixed lines in service and teledensity – 2012 – 2027
Chart 47 – Change in the number of fixed lines in service by type – 2015 – 2021
Chart 48 – Decline in fixed-line voice traffic – 2015 – 2021

List of Exhibits

Exhibit 1 – Map of Telecom Maturity Index global ranking among countries in Africa
Exhibit 2 – Generalised Market Characteristics by Market Segment
Exhibit 3 – Africa – Market Leaders and market developments
Exhibit 4 – Africa – Market Challengers and market developments
Exhibit 5 – Africa – Market Emergents and market developments
Exhibit 6 – National Broadband Policy penetration targets to 2030
Exhibit 7 – 2Africa landing stations

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South Africa Telecoms Market Report

Telecoms, Mobile and Broadband - Statistics and Analyses

Purchase this Report

South African regulator concludes long-awaited spectrum auction

Key developments

Companies mentioned in this report

Key statistics

Regional Africa Market Comparison

Country overview

Telecommunications market

Regulatory environment

Mobile market

Fixed-line broadband market

Fixed network operators

Telecommunications infrastructure

Data centres

Smart infrastructure

Appendix – Historic data

Glossary of abbreviations

Related reports

Purchase this Report

Share this Report

TMT Intelligence

A platform to scale your intelligence tasks

Research Methodology

Hot Topics

News & Views