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Question of the Day: How do you normally pay for purchases in stores?
Vodacom gets a million new subscribers in December
- Thread starter rpm
- Start date
bb_matt
Executive Member
Cool, now they can drop their data rates 
Dovi
Expert Member
I heart vodacom!
How do they count subscribers? This looks very fishy to me. Taking their 17.5m and adding numbers for the other 2 networks taken from a recent Finance 24 article, and the mid-2005 population estimates from Stats SA, you get some unbelievable market penetration figures.
Population > 9 yrs old 36793100
Vodacom 17500000
MTN 8400000
Cell-C 2500000
Total 28400000
Market Penetration 77.19%
If you exclude people 10-14, this increases to 89.6%.
Or are they counting those old Nokia 6110s I have in the back of a drawer somewhere, unused for ages?
Population > 9 yrs old 36793100
Vodacom 17500000
MTN 8400000
Cell-C 2500000
Total 28400000
Market Penetration 77.19%
If you exclude people 10-14, this increases to 89.6%.
Or are they counting those old Nokia 6110s I have in the back of a drawer somewhere, unused for ages?
Dovi
Expert Member
jabulani said:How do they count subscribers? This looks very fishy to me. Taking their 17.5m and adding numbers for the other 2 networks taken from a recent Finance 24 article, and the mid-2005 population estimates from Stats SA, you get some unbelievable market penetration figures.
Population > 9 yrs old 36793100
Vodacom 17500000
MTN 8400000
Cell-C 2500000
Total 28400000
Market Penetration 77.19%
If you exclude people 10-14, this increases to 89.6%.
Or are they counting those old Nokia 6110s I have in the back of a drawer somewhere, unused for ages?
True, but don't forget jabulani this includes 3G clients..
bb_matt
Executive Member
You'd be hard pressed to find anyone in most city areas who doesn't have a mobile phone. The majority of maids and gardners have one.
These are the old generation handsets which have been given away or sold cheaply. Over the years, I've given three away and I'm hardly unique.
Although a R10 or R25 pay-as-u-go voucher is expensive for millions, people can limit their usage and get more out of them than any landline, as well as obviously using them mainly for incoming calls.
The market penetration of mobile phones in SA is nothing short of remarkable.
These are the old generation handsets which have been given away or sold cheaply. Over the years, I've given three away and I'm hardly unique.
Although a R10 or R25 pay-as-u-go voucher is expensive for millions, people can limit their usage and get more out of them than any landline, as well as obviously using them mainly for incoming calls.
The market penetration of mobile phones in SA is nothing short of remarkable.
Its a major success story, the cell market that is.
At the end of the day though, they all feed one machine, Telkom.
One would also expect that with that level of market penetration the consumer should see more benefits, economies of scale and all, but then this gets us right back to Telkom again.
Is there a spreadhseet or document around that highlights the change in pricing/bllling/rates over the last say 7 or 8 years with respect to cellphone costs and the introduction of Cell C?
At the end of the day though, they all feed one machine, Telkom.
One would also expect that with that level of market penetration the consumer should see more benefits, economies of scale and all, but then this gets us right back to Telkom again.
Is there a spreadhseet or document around that highlights the change in pricing/bllling/rates over the last say 7 or 8 years with respect to cellphone costs and the introduction of Cell C?
kaspaas
Expert Member
bb_matt said:
Most are only receiving calls on those phones - courtesy of the caller's employer
After analysing my company telephone records, I have to believe that these "Pay-as-you-go" kind of phones must be a gold mine - the callers using "work" resources don't have the foggiest idea of the cost of the calls they make.
bb_matt said:
I certainly agree with both of these statements.
But I still have difficulty with the term "subscriber" ( implication - a PERSON ). If our rural population is 40%, and 3/4 of them have no cell phone, and EVERY urban person over 9 yrs old has one, the penetration figures add up to more "subscribers" than people. I'd settle for "active sims" maybe, which is a different concept.
Mightn't business customer also be counted as subscribers here? If so then you should add the number of active businesses to the potential 'population'.jabulani said:
I think the numbers also include e.g. tourists who've gotten phones temporarily while in SA. (I seem to recall seeing somewhere recently that they regard a subscriber as active if they have used the network in the last three months ... or was it six?)
kaspaas
Expert Member
Turtle said:
Also many people have 2 SIM's: One in the phone and one for the PC 3G card.
But still: The total number of claimed users by the three cellular operators seem to be too high for the total claimed population.
Skeptik
Banned
Many people get phones for Christmas of course, but I wonder if people are stocking up on the cheap 99c sims offered prior to the draconian changes in the law.
I dont think the figures have been overstated but they are certainly misleading. I am sure the massive promotion of R5 starter packs has caused the uptake. If I am not mistaken these starter packs come preloaded with airtime. A lot of people must have bought them as gifts or just bought 6 sim cards for the price of one recharge voucher! That would equate to more airtime for your money if the sims came preloaded with airtime.
Just for the record, never take these big corporate announcements without a large pinch of salt
Than again don't take any of my comments without a larger pinch of salt!
Just for the record, never take these big corporate announcements without a large pinch of salt
Than again don't take any of my comments without a larger pinch of salt!
jabulani said:How do they count subscribers? This looks very fishy to me. Taking their 17.5m and adding numbers for the other 2 networks taken from a recent Finance 24 article, and the mid-2005 population estimates from Stats SA, you get some unbelievable market penetration figures.
Population > 9 yrs old 36793100
Vodacom 17500000
MTN 8400000
Cell-C 2500000
Total 28400000
Market Penetration 77.19%
If you exclude people 10-14, this increases to 89.6%.
Or are they counting those old Nokia 6110s I have in the back of a drawer somewhere, unused for ages?
Operators can however report on the "real" subscriber figures if they want to. There's a difference between registered and attached subscribers. Come on guys! Give us the ATTACHED figures.