South Africa - Telecoms, Mobile, Broadband and Forecasts

Jan 17, 2015 – Navi Mumbai, India: Marketreportsonsouthafrica.com presents a report on “South Africa - Telecoms, Mobile, Broadband and Forecasts.” Digital media and social media have reached a level of development that is fostering an associated advertising and marketing industry.

Mergers and acquisitions in Africa’s leading telecoms market

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 – Vodacom, MTN, Cell C and Telkom SA -; are competing for market share in the next growth wave, mobile broadband. 3G/4G mobile services now rival DSL fixed-line offerings in terms of both speed and price and have consequently outpaced them in terms of subscriber growth. Five different LTE networks have been launched, although their introduction was initially back by delays with suitable frequency spectrum allocations.

Mobile SIM card penetration is well above 100% of the population, driven by separate subscriptions for voice and data services. There has been speculation about mergers and acquisitions (M&A) among the smaller players, and major infrastructure sharing deals have been concluded. Several Mobile Virtual Network Operators (MVNO) are preparing to enter the market in 2014, although the few existing ones have so far failed to have a major impact.

Market highlights:

-Consolidation among smaller mobile operators;

-Neotel takeover by Vodacom;

-Five commercial LTE services launched, more to follow;

-Several MVNOs are preparing to enter the market;

-Legal battle around interconnection charges;

-Telkom writes off legacy assets, invests billions into broadband infrastructure;

-Many national and metropolitan fibre network rollouts, including FttH;

-Cost of international fibre bandwidth has collapsed since monopoly ended;

-New international fibre optic submarine cables planned for 2014;

-Innovative wireless broadband...