South Africa will soon have the entire population covered on the telecommunications sector. Latest data shows that 98.5% of the South African population is subscribed to one of the four mobile network operators. Annual growth stands at 10.7%, which is a decrease from the 22.5% recorded a year ago. Many consumers have multiple subscriptions to network, which means that the data won’t be exact.

Vodacom continues to reign the market with 22.16m consumers which is decreasing, unlike its rival MTN which stands at 15.56m, while Cell C has 5.4m subscribers.

MTN this week unveiled a new form of SIM swap which is self-serviced. The consumer who loses his/her SIM card, or whose phone is stolen simply buys a new SIM card at any outlet, and phones 173 and requests the SIM swap. The same amount of airtime, the same number, and the same subscriptions will be maintained. The package is only available to Pay As You Go consumers (prepaid). More information in the press release after the break.

[via Cellular-News, MTN]

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