One thing harming voice calling more than WhatsApp in South Africa

Spam is killing voice calls in South Africa faster than voice-over IP services like WhatsApp and Skype have ever done.

Ask anyone with a cellphone in South Africa and they will likely tell you that they no longer accept calls from numbers they don’t recognise.

The only people who don’t have this luxury are people who need to accept unknown calls for business purposes.

Some might take the extra step of using Truecaller to look up numbers to see whether it’s someone they should answer or call back.

However, spammers and scammers have wised up to that and regularly change numbers, registering with misleading or obscure names on Truecaller to try and trick people into picking up.

Several factors have led to the rise in telephone spam. One key problem is that spammers and scammers have been able to access trusted phone number prefixes, beginning with regular landline numbers.

When people stopped accepting those calls, spammers began using cellular phone numbers. This includes abusing unlimited mobile calling plans or spoofing (faking) a cellphone number.

The Internet Service Providers’ Association (Ispa) has said that it is illegal for call centres operating from fixed premises to use mobile numbers.

Ispa, which is the official Internet industry representative body for South Africa, said this contravenes the 2016 Numbering Plan Regulation and constitutes unfair competition.

It has called on the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (Icasa) to crack down on the practice.

Ispa said spam callers have realised that voice calls from mobile numbers are more likely to be answered.

“Firm action must be taken to prevent the unlawful use of mobile number ranges, particularly of the older 082, 083, 072, and 073 number ranges that appear more credible,” said Ispa regulatory advisor Dominic Cull.

“As cold calls from certain number ranges go unanswered, the unlawful use of mobile numbers by call centres seeking high levels of engagement skyrockets.”

Ispa said it has written to Icasa regarding this illegal activity by call centres since 2022 and provided evidence when requested by the regulator.

However, Ispa’s members reported increasing volumes of spam calls from mobile numbers, and the organisation has urged Icasa to take firm action to address the issue.

“Icasa must act now to stamp out the abuse of mobile numbers and to end the high levels of voice call spam being endured by South Africans,” said Cull.

End of the telephone call

In addition to spammers appropriating cellular prefixes, another issue has been that phone-based direct marketing existed in a regulatory grey area until recently.

While email, SMS, and WhatsApp-based direct marketing were subject to Protection of Personal Information Act (Popia) rules, it was unclear whether the same restriction applied to calls.

As late as 2022, Information Regulator chair Pansy Tlakula repeated the previously accepted legal stance that phone calls fell outside Popia’s definition of electronic communications.

However, the Information Regulator has obtained an updated legal opinion and started cracking down on phone spam.

In April 2025, the Information Regulator published amendments to the Popia regulations, which include new rules for direct telemarketers in South Africa.

These new regulations came into effect on 17 April 2025 and introduced requirements such as recording telephonic consent when a direct marketer first contacts a data subject.

Marketers may contact subjects once without explicit consent and ask them for permission to keep calling.

If the subject opts out, the marketer may not contact that person again. This also applies to direct marketers using automated calling machines.

BMIT’s latest Voice Services and UC&C Report found that fixed and mobile voice revenues are in freefall, and are projected to keep declining over the next three years.

The chart above from the report summarises BMIT’s latest findings and forecast to 2028.

Rising spam volumes and the rapid shift to unified communication and collaboration (UC&C) platforms such as WhatsApp and Microsoft Teams have accelerated the decline of traditional phone calls.

Unless mobile operators want to see their traditional voice revenues evaporate even faster than they already are, they might want to help tackle the scourge that is phone spam.