{"id":653517,"date":"2026-06-11T13:38:02","date_gmt":"2026-06-11T11:38:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/?p=653517"},"modified":"2026-06-13T06:58:52","modified_gmt":"2026-06-13T04:58:52","slug":"companies-like-afrihost-and-capitec-about-to-become-very-important-to-vodacom-and-mtn-report","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/cellular\/653517-companies-like-afrihost-and-capitec-about-to-become-very-important-to-vodacom-and-mtn-report.html","title":{"rendered":"Companies like Afrihost and Capitec about to become very important to Vodacom and MTN \u2014\u00a0report"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

South Africa\u2019s mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) market is expected to more than triple by 2030, driven by banks, eSIM adoption, and ecosystem-led business models, Africa Analysis predicted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In its 2026 South Africa MVNO Market Outlook Report<\/em>, the market research firm found that the local MVNO market reached 4.4 million active SIMs in 2025.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The report estimated that MVNOs accounted for 3.7% of South Africa\u2019s retail mobile market in 2025, following annual subscriber growth of 43%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Africa Analysis forecast that the MVNO market would grow to 14.4 million SIMs by 2030, representing 12.5% of the country\u2019s retail mobile market.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The company said the South African market had moved beyond its early niche phase and was becoming a strategic customer engagement channel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Banks, retailers, insurers, Internet service providers, and digital platforms were increasingly using mobile connectivity to support loyalty, retention, and broader digital services.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Capitec Connect was the largest MVNO in South Africa at the end of 2025, with Africa Analysis stating it had around 1.9 million subscribers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Africa Analysis said this accounted for roughly 41% of the country\u2019s MVNO market, making banking-led operators the segment\u2019s strongest growth engine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Capitec most recently reported that it had 1.5 million 90-day active users by 28 February 2026 and that its MVNO\u2019s net income had increased by 129%, from R193 million to R442 million.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That made Capitec an incredibly valuable customer to its mobile virtual network enabler (MVNE), Cell C, boosting its overall subscriber growth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Given Africa Analysis\u2019s conclusion that it would become the market\u2019s growth engine, companies that can launch successful MVNO plays will become important to incumbent operators like Vodacom and MTN.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe South African MVNO market has entered a fundamentally different phase of development,\u201d said Africa Analysis Team managing director Andre Wills.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe are seeing connectivity embedded into broader customer ecosystems where the primary objective is no longer selling airtime.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Instead, Wills said it was about improving customer engagement, loyalty and retention. \u201cThis represents the emergence of the MVNO 3.0 model,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Banking MVNOs driving growth<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Will said other banking MVNOs, including FNB Connect, Standard Bank Mobile, and Nedbank Connect, were also using connectivity to strengthen their customer ecosystems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He described the rise of \u201cMVNO 3.0\u201d as mobile services being embedded into broader banking, retail, insurance, and digital ecosystems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Under this model, connectivity becomes a service layer that supports existing customer relationships rather than operating as a standalone telecommunications product.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wills said South Africa still had substantial room for growth when compared with leading global MVNO markets of a similar age.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The report found that South Africa\u2019s MVNO market share stood at 3.7% in 2025, compared with 12.6% in comparable international markets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This suggested that the local market remained underpenetrated, particularly as more consumer-facing brands move into digital services and embedded connectivity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

eSIM technology was expected to be another important catalyst for MVNO growth over the next several years, according to the report.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Africa Analysis said about 59% of South African MVNOs already support eSIM or have announced plans to introduce the technology.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

eSIM removes the need for physical SIM cards, allowing operators to acquire customers digitally while reducing distribution costs and barriers to entry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The report said future growth would likely come from banking and financial services brands, retail loyalty ecosystems, digital-first providers, ISPs, insurers, and affinity brands.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Africa Analysis said future market leaders would be determined less by price competition and more by their ability to embed connectivity into broader customer ecosystems.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa Analysis forecasts that the South African MVNO market will triple in 4 years and become the growth engine of South Africa\u2019s cellular market.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":653526,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10106,14],"tags":[23323,1669,97776,5334,81699,20557],"class_list":["post-653517","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-banking","category-cellular","tag-africa-analysis","tag-afrihost","tag-afrihost-airmobile","tag-capitec","tag-capitec-connect","tag-mobile-virtual-network-operator-mvno"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/653517"}],"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\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=653517"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/653517\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":653991,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/653517\/revisions\/653991"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/653526"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=653517"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=653517"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=653517"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}