{"id":172592,"date":"2016-07-19T16:25:55","date_gmt":"2016-07-19T14:25:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/?p=172592"},"modified":"2016-07-19T16:27:29","modified_gmt":"2016-07-19T14:27:29","slug":"vodacom-vs-mtn-best-and-worst-mobile-network-in-south-africa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/cellular\/172592-vodacom-vs-mtn-best-and-worst-mobile-network-in-south-africa.html","title":{"rendered":"Vodacom vs MTN: best and worst mobile network in South Africa"},"content":{"rendered":"

Research ICT Africa has released its second policy brief for 2016, comparing the market share and strategic positioning of South Africa\u2019s major mobile operators.<\/p>\n

It found that as of the end of 2015, Vodacom held 37.7% of the market, followed by MTN at 35.9% and Cell C at 23%.<\/p>\n

Telkom Mobile is the smallest mobile network operator, with 2.6% of the market.<\/p>\n

This places it in a position as the latest entrant to undercut the larger operators and win subscribers, said Research ICT Africa.<\/p>\n

Market share<\/h3>\n

The table below summarises the market share of Vodacom, MTN, Cell, and Telkom, as at the end of 2015 –\u00a0based on a BusinessTech article<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n
\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Mobile operator market share<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n
Operator<\/strong><\/td>\nNumber of subscribers<\/strong><\/td>\nMarket share<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/thead>\n
Vodacom<\/strong><\/td>\n32.12 million<\/td>\n37.7%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
MTN SA<\/strong><\/td>\n30.55 million<\/td>\n35.9%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Cell<\/strong> C<\/strong><\/td>\n19.6 million<\/td>\n23.0%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Telkom<\/strong><\/td>\n2.19 million<\/td>\n2.6%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
MVNOs<\/strong><\/td>\n650,000<\/td>\n0.8%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
MTN’s financial year end is 31 December, therefore its market share is overestimated.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Competitor strategic positioning<\/h3>\n

Research ICT Africa found that Vodacom<\/strong> offers users a high-quality premium-cost business model, charging higher prices for quality of service – where it is the market leader.<\/p>\n

Cell C<\/strong> has embraced over-the-top services like WhatsApp, choosing to use it to create products that stimulate demand.<\/p>\n

It has also priced itself competitively and appeals to cost-sensitive consumers – offering the highest value.<\/p>\n

Telkom Mobile<\/strong> is taking\u00a0<\/strong>charge of the postpaid segment.<\/p>\n

Through month-to-month contracts and high contract value, Telkom boasts a faster postpaid growth rate than any other operator.<\/p>\n

It also offers the lowest data prices in the country, but is\u00a0not winning subscribers in the prepaid market.<\/p>\n

MTN<\/strong>, which the report said has been complacent for the past few years, is turning the corner.<\/p>\n

It has innovated in some parts of its prepaid segment.<\/p>\n

While MTN\u2019s prepaid subscriber numbers grew at a faster rate than Vodacom\u2019s, it lost 200,000 postpaid customers in the past year.<\/p>\n

\u201cIts large investment outlay is a sign of its commitment to improved service and technology, but an inspection shows it has played catch-up with Vodacom.”<\/p>\n

The table below details the\u00a0operators’ strategies.<\/p>\n

\n
\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Competitor Strategy Analysis<\/th>\nOperator<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n
Criteria<\/strong><\/td>\nVodacom<\/strong><\/td>\nMTN<\/strong><\/td>\nCell C<\/strong><\/td>\nTelkom<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Response to OTT<\/td>\nWeak<\/td>\nWeak<\/td>\nIndustry leader<\/td>\nModerate<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Zero-rated service offerings<\/td>\nFair<\/td>\nInnovative<\/td>\nInnovative<\/td>\nModerate<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Pricing<\/td>\nFair<\/td>\nFair<\/td>\nIndustry leader<\/td>\nInnovative<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Proritising Customer Experience Management<\/td>\nIndustry leader<\/td>\nModerate<\/td>\nModerate<\/td>\nModerate<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Service personalisation<\/td>\nIndustry leader<\/td>\nFair<\/td>\nModerate<\/td>\nFair<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Network quality of service<\/td>\nIndustry leader<\/td>\nModerate<\/td>\nWeak<\/td>\nModerate<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/thead>\n<\/table><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

More cellular news<\/h3>\n

New smartphone deals at Vodacom<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Telkom LTE problems<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Cell C worried about high prices, government support for spectrum auction<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

LTE spectrum auction for South Africa \u2013 bidding will start at R3 billion<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Massive Vodacom data outage in South Africa<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Research ICT Africa has released a report comparing how South Africa\u2019s mobile network operators have positioned themselves compared to one another.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":128746,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sma_x_autopost_status":"idle","_sma_x_autopost_error":"","_sma_x_post_id":"","_sma_facebook_post_id":"","_sma_instagram_post_id":"","_sma_threads_post_id":"","_sma_x_attempts":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[36,355,42,10626,109,41],"class_list":["post-172592","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cellular","tag-active","tag-cell-c","tag-mtn","tag-research-ict-africa","tag-telkom","tag-vodacom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/172592"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/23"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=172592"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/172592\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":172594,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/172592\/revisions\/172594"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/128746"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=172592"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=172592"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=172592"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}