{"id":85752,"date":"2015-04-23T00:05:22","date_gmt":"2015-04-22T22:05:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=85752"},"modified":"2015-04-23T08:09:49","modified_gmt":"2015-04-23T06:09:49","slug":"sa-mobile-subscribers-vodacom-vs-mtn-vs-cell-c-vs-telkom","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/mobile\/85752\/sa-mobile-subscribers-vodacom-vs-mtn-vs-cell-c-vs-telkom\/","title":{"rendered":"SA mobile subscribers: Vodacom vs MTN vs Cell C vs Telkom"},"content":{"rendered":"

With a fresh buzz around\u00a0new MVNO me&you mobile entering South Africa<\/a><\/strong>, the latest subscriber spread from entrenched operators shows what a difficult time the new player will have trying to penetrate the market.<\/p>\n

GSMA Intelligence estimates that South Africa has around 80 million mobile connections – a tally of all reported figures from the operators comes very close to that figure.<\/p>\n

In its latest full-year reporting, South Africa’s biggest mobile operator by subscribers, Vodacom, noted a 3.8% decline in users to 31.4 million.<\/p>\n

The group’s biggest competitor in the local market, MTN, reported in March 2015 that\u00a0its South African operation increased its subscriber base by 8.9% to 28 million.<\/p>\n

Telkom, which has dropped both its “8.ta” and “Telkom Mobile” branding in favour of a converged service, reported 1.8 million mobile users for the 2014 period.<\/p>\n

Cell C and Virgin Mobile are not required to publish annual reports containing subscriber numbers, but the companies have, in the past, divulged figures.<\/p>\n

In 2014, Cell C reported massive growth in its subscriber numbers, with the comparative figure for the year 18.1 million users.<\/p>\n

According to a JSE-listed Blue Label Telecoms interim results presentation, Cell C grew its user base in 2015 to around 20 million users.<\/p>\n

Virgin Mobile has avoided the issue of talking specific numbers, instead focusing on growing its user base to a landmark 1 million subscribers by 2017.<\/p>\n

The last user figures from Virgin Mobile came in 2013, pegged around 500,000 – and analysts doubt the figure has changed much since then.<\/p>\n

\"SA<\/a>

SA subscriber numbers<\/p><\/div>\n

Market share<\/h3>\n

Using\u00a0these numbers we are able to paint a picture of the South African mobile landscape, and see who’s winning and losing subscribers, and to whom.<\/p>\n

Remarkably, most mobile operators have remained fairly stable in their market share, with MTN staying at around 35% of reported numbers and Telkom and Virgin maintaining a 2.3% and 0.6% grip of the market respectively.<\/p>\n

Vodacom, while remaining the biggest operator by some margin, has lost the most ground in the local market – dropping from over 50% in 2012 to just under 40% in 2014.<\/p>\n

Cell C has been the biggest winner, pushing close to its 25% market share target set by former CEO Alan Knott-Craig.<\/p>\n

The following market share percentages are based off reported subscriber numbers from the operators and the latest available information.<\/p>\n

\"SA<\/a>

SA mobile market share<\/p><\/div>\n

\"SA<\/a>

SA mobile market share<\/p><\/div>\n

SA mobile subscriber numbers (millions, 2011 – 2014) and market share<\/h3>\n
\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Operator<\/strong><\/td>\n2011<\/strong><\/td>\n%<\/strong><\/td>\n2012<\/strong><\/td>\n%<\/strong><\/td>\n2013<\/strong><\/td>\n%<\/strong><\/td>\n2014<\/strong><\/td>\n%<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Vodacom<\/td>\n31.7<\/td>\n50.9%<\/td>\n29.97<\/td>\n45.6%<\/span><\/td>\n29.3<\/td>\n43.0%<\/span><\/td>\n31.4<\/td>\n39.3%<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
MTN<\/td>\n20.9<\/td>\n33.6%<\/td>\n24.5<\/td>\n37.3%<\/span><\/td>\n25.0<\/td>\n36.8%<\/span><\/td>\n28.0<\/td>\n35.1%<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Cell C<\/td>\n8.2<\/td>\n13.2%<\/td>\n9.4<\/td>\n14.3%<\/span><\/td>\n11.7<\/td>\n17.2%<\/span><\/td>\n18.1<\/td>\n22.7%<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Telkom<\/td>\n1.14<\/td>\n1.8%<\/td>\n1.48<\/td>\n2.3%<\/span><\/td>\n1.54<\/td>\n2.3%<\/td>\n1.8<\/td>\n2.3%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Virgin Mobile<\/td>\n0.3<\/td>\n0.5%<\/td>\n0.4<\/td>\n0.6%<\/span><\/td>\n0.5<\/td>\n0.7%<\/span><\/td>\n0.5<\/td>\n0.6%<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Total<\/strong><\/td>\n62.24<\/strong><\/td>\n100%<\/strong><\/td>\n65.75<\/strong><\/td>\n100%<\/strong><\/td>\n68.02<\/strong><\/td>\n100%<\/strong><\/td>\n79.8<\/strong><\/td>\n100%<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table><\/div>\n

More on mobile<\/h3>\n

Vodacom loses subscribers in SA<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

MTN SA grows subscribers amid earnings drop<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

MTN losing customers to Cell C<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Virgin Mobile SA wants 1 million subscribers<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

With a buzz around me&you mobile arriving on the scene, the latest subscriber spread from established operators shows what a difficult time the new player will have trying to penetrate the market.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":57621,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[42,26,2650,28,65,77,27],"class_list":["post-85752","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mobile","tag-cell-c","tag-headline","tag-mobile-subscribers","tag-mtn","tag-telkom","tag-virgin-mobile","tag-vodacom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85752","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=85752"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85752\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":85808,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85752\/revisions\/85808"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/57621"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=85752"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=85752"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=85752"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}