Vodacom believes South Africa could be ready to switch off its 3G networks within 12-24 months, but group CTO Dejan Kastelic says no operator will want to do it alone.
“We would be super keen to switch off 3G in all of the markets, not only South Africa,” Kastelic told TechCentral in an interview on Wednesday. “We do see that, potentially in the next 12-24 months, we will be in a good position in South Africa to actually do the shutdown, but it’s something we will need to discuss with other involved parties to co-ordinate.”
3G handsets, which can’t use the more modern 4G system, now make up “slightly below 10%” of devices on Vodacom’s South African network, he said. “This is a good number,” he said.
The reason for switching off is spectrum. Turning off 3G would free frequencies that Vodacom could refarm for 4G, which carries more traffic over the same bandwidth.
Beyond the remaining handsets, the obstacle is competitive. An operator that switches off first risks handing its remaining 3G customers to a rival, Kastelic said.
“If you’re the first one, the second one will wait for a while, get all of those customers onto its 3G network, subsidise them and only then shut down,” he said.
He wants the operators to agree on a date and announce it a year in advance. In the meantime, they would run promotions to get customers to trade in their old phones, so that “by the time the date comes, all of us are in the same position”.
2G will linger
Typically, he said, operators work with regulators and government on measures such as stopping imports of 3G devices and offering tax benefits on 4G handsets. South Africa has already taken one such step: treasury removed the 9% luxury excise duty on smartphones costing less than R2 500 from April 2025.
There is no longer a government deadline for operators to switch off legacy mobile technologies. Communications minister Solly Malatsi said in November 2024 that the switch-off should be market led, warning that an imposed date could leave behind “millions and millions of South Africans – most of whom are poor”. His department formally dropped the 31 December 2027 deadline in July 2025, leaving the timing to the operators.
Vodacom said in May that it expected 3G to go before 2G, and Kastelic expects 2G, which still serves feature phones and machine-to-machine devices, to hang on for several years longer than 3G.
“Let’s first resolve 3G,” he said. Once 3G is off, most 3G phones will fall back to 2G. Kastelic expects to allow six to 12 months for those users to move from 2G straight to 4G. Only then will Vodacom look at who is left: machines or people still using feature phones. Then it will decide what investment and subsidies are needed to move them.
MTN has taken a similar approach to the affordability problem. It began distributing R99 4G smartphones in 2025 to longstanding prepaid customers who couldn’t afford to upgrade. — (c) 2026 NewsCentral Media
