South Africans accessing more satellite internet solutions
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 the mobile network operators MTN and Vodacom, all aimed at improving network capabilities. Vodacom in late 2023 made a bid to merge with MAZIV, in which it has a 30% stake, to improve its presence in the fibre broadband sector. This has so far been blocked by the Competition Commission.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 by the end of 2024. Several satellite solutions also appeared in 2023, aimed at providing additional backhaul and improving connectivity in rural areas. Starlink, which provides services in neighbouring Mozambique and Eswatini, has yet to receive a licence to operate in South Africa, though thousands of households access Starlink regardless.
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.
A multi-spectrum auction delayed several times due to legal wrangling 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. This raised ZAR14.4 billion, though by the end of 2023 a large proportion of the licence fees remained unpaid.
The market has shrugged off the economic impact of the pandemic, which caused significant difficulties for production and supply chains and saw a slowdown in some network expansions, particularly around 5G. However, since 2022 the national power gird has come under considerable strain. Load-shedding has become the norm, leading to telcos having to invest in other power sources (mainly diesel and solar), thus impacting on revenue.
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:
Cell C switches off its own network and completes its migration to a virtual RAN operating on MTN's network.Competition Commission recommends against merger of Vodacom South Africa with MAZIV.
Wireless ISPs gain access to 6GHz spectrum.
Satellite broadband gaining traction despite Starlink not yet receiving a licence.
Telcos finances impacted by continued power load-shedding.
This product will be updated with the latest data at the time of order. Consequently, dispatch time for this product will be 7-10 business days.
Table of Contents
- 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
- SMS
- MMS
- 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
- Telkom
- Vodacom
- 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
- Equiano
- African Coast to Europe (ACE)
- SAEx, WASACE
- Seaborn
- METISS
- PEACE
- 2Africa
- 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
List of Charts
List of Exhibits
Companies Mentioned
- 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.
