Telecommunications

South africa’s telecommunications network is the largest and most developed in Africa, and ranks ahead of countries such as China, Italy and India, according to the World Economic Forum’s Global Technology Report 2007/08.

 A reliable and cost-effective telecommunications sector is vital for economic growth and, through greater investment and new players in the sector, South Africa is well placed to achieve this.

Fixed-line telecommunications In a 2007 report published by the Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC), the Northern Cape registered only slightly below the national average in terms of the general population’s access to landlines.

One in five (20%) of households in the Northern Cape were found to have landline access, compared to the 23.1% national average. This national average, though, is significantly skewed by figures from the Western Cape especially.

The Northern Cape’s 20% places it ahead of the North West, Mpumalanga, Limpopo and the Eastern Cape. These figures are higher in the urban regions of the province, with Kimberley, for example, mentioned alongside Cape Town, Johannesburg and Durban for its higher concentration of households with access to a landline, superior infrastructure and service options.

In the rural communities access is low, with households and individuals primarily relying on mobile phones for their telecommunications needs.

Telkom remains the primary fixed-line communications provider in South Africa, after years of being the only one. The launch in 2006 of South Africa’s second network operator, Neotel, has shaken up the sector, however, and made telecommunications in South Africa both significantly cheaper and more readily and easily available.

 Mobile telecommunications The ‘big three’ mobile-phone companies in South Africa are MTN, Vodacom and Cell C. Records for 2008, as compiled by Wireless Federation, suggest that the South African cellular-subscriber base has grown to 43.15 million, a penetration rate of 98.5%.

According to the findings, Vodacom remains the market leader with a subscriber base of 22.16 million (51.4%), followed by MTN at 15.56 million (36%) and Cell C – the company with the highest current growth rate – at 5.4 million subscribers (12.5%). The 2007 HSRC report found that 20.1% of households in the Northern Cape had access to a mobile phone.

This is the lowest of all the provinces in South Africa, and significantly lower than the national average of 33.1%. South Africa’s impressive mobiletelecommunications subsector has attracted international interest from brands such as Alcatel, Siemens, Telecom Malaysia, Vodafone and SBC Communications, which have all made significant investments in the local industry.





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