This may go down as the week that changed everything in South Africa’s telecommunications industry, the one that signalled the start of the end of the duopoly grip held by Vodacom and MTN. It started nine days ago when sector regulator, the Independent Communications
Mobile termination rates, the fees South Africa’s operators charge each other to carry calls between their networks, have to come down, but the scale of the drop and the level of “asymmetry” favouring smaller operators proposed by telecommunications regulator Icasa are too substantial
With demand for mobile data expected to grow as much as a thousand times in the next 10 years, Telkom says it is turning to Wi-Fi and the fourth-generation (4G) LTE Advanced mobile broadband to meet demand while remaining affordable for consumers. Telkom Mobile
Vodacom has taken strong exception to a move by telecommunications regulator Icasa to draft a wholesale call rates regime that favours its rival Cell C and more recent market entrant Telkom Mobile. Vodacom says it supports the proposed cuts to termination rates
The share prices of MTN and Vodacom fell sharply on Monday, while Telkom climbed by nearly 5%, after telecommunications regulator Icasa publish draft regulations for inter-network call rates that strongly disfavour the two bigger operators. At lunchtime, Vodacom was
Cell C CEO Alan Knott-Craig has cautiously welcomed the proposed cuts in wholesale call termination rates, announced by telecommunications regulator Icasa on Friday, saying that although he’d have “wished for a better outcome for Cell C”, the cuts will lead to a “more competitive and balanced” market
Telecommunications regulator Icasa has handed a huge victory to smaller operators, including Cell C, by proposing aggressive “asymmetry”, or wholesale price benefits, in termination rates in a move that strongly disfavours larger rivals MTN and Vodacom. At the same time
Despite its precarious financial situation, South Africa’s fourth mobile operator, Telkom Mobile is in a “prime position” in wireless broadband compared to rivals Vodacom, MTN and Cell C thanks to a huge chunk of radio frequency spectrum it has access to that allows it to build a fast and reliable
Having kick-started the only real price war in the South African cellular market, the “little network that could”, Cell C, is in a tough place. Alan Knott-Craig’s Hail Mary pass to capture his stated intention of 25% of the market appears to be working – at MTN’s expense – for the time being. The recent results from
Telkom is removing the enormous pink ball from Johannesburg’s landmark Hillbrow Tower. Although the telecommunications operator is only obliged to remove the fibreglass structure at the end of the year, it’s doing so now before Johannesburg’s summer thunderstorms render the removal
