South Africa’s telecommunications industry is facing sustained customer experience pressure, with network outages, billing disputes and failed service channels driving consumer frustration, despite positive sentiment generated by marketing campaigns.
This is one of the major takeaways from DataEQ’s 2026 SA Telecoms Customer Experience Index report, which analysed over 653 000 social media mentions across X, Facebook and HelloPeter between October 2025 and March 2026.
The results show that three of the five major mobile network operators recorded a net negative operational sentiment, after scores across customer service, account administration, network quality and responsiveness on social media platforms were aggregated.
The lowest scores – across network quality and customer service – dragged the entire industry’s operational net sentiment to -8%, revealing a major gap between what providers promise to deliver and the experience customers actually have.
According to the report, Rain leads the industry at 16%, followed by Cell C at 11%. MTN and Telkom both recorded -17%, while Vodacom was the worst performer at -48%.
DataEQ explains that operational customer experience net sentiment measures how customers experience a provider in their day-to-day interactions, including service, complaints and resolution.
The findings indicate the industry’s negative performance is not being driven by isolated incidents. Instead, recurring problems involving network reliability, billing and service resolution are undermining customer confidence.
When things go wrong
Sarah Lamb, managing director of DataEQ, tells ITWeb via e-mail that the difference between the strongest and weakest performers was evident in how operators handled problems when they occurred.
“Ultimately, the difference between the leaders and the rest came down to what happened when things went wrong. Rain and Cell C generated genuine praise for service resolution and product reliability, while negative brands faced recurring failures across the same channels, with customers reporting that issues remained unresolved.”
“Rain’s lead was supported by strategic campaigns that drove positive engagement, alongside organic praise for its customer service. Customers highlighted same-day resolutions and proactive follow-ups from agents.”
Cell C’s performance was driven by perceptions of network coverage and data reliability, as well as consumer interest in its data offerings, the report states.
“MTN and Telkom remained in negative territory, driven by recurring billing errors, data-crediting failures and infrastructure issues, compounded by poor resolution and cancellation handling,” Lamb says.
Vodacom recorded the highest volume of industry conversation but also the weakest overall sentiment. Customers reported fibre and mobile outages lasting days or weeks, often with limited communication from the operator, says DataEQ.
It adds that billing and contract problems featured prominently, including unexplained debit orders, price increases, mismatched contracts and difficulties accessing bills or cancelling services.
Lamb notes, however, that Vodacom recorded an above-industry response rate on social media, indicating a willingness to engage publicly with customers.
Biggest weakness
Customer service emerged as one of the most damaging areas of the analysis, with turnaround times, staff competency and inaccessible channels identified as major complaint drivers.
According to DataEQ, consumers frequently reported making repeated calls and follow-ups without their problems being resolved. Complaints included outages lasting days or weeks without technicians being dispatched, despite customers having logged multiple reference numbers.
Staff competency was another major concern, with consumers reporting incorrect information, unresolved escalations and repeated transfers between agents and departments.
Lamb points out that improving customer experience would require operators to address service failures alongside broader infrastructure problems.
“The starting point is fairly simple: outside of major infrastructure issues, much of the frustration came down to poor customer service. This was the most negative and prominent theme in the report.”
The scale of the problem was particularly evident in social media engagement, she reveals.
“Six in 10 high-priority social media interactions went unanswered across the industry, while those that did receive a response waited an average of 4.2 hours. That’s a long wait for a customer who was already having a bad experience.”
According to Lamb, social media has increasingly become both a customer-service channel and an escalation mechanism.
“Social media was effectively playing two roles. For some customers, it was the first place they went for help. For others, it was where they ended up after traditional service channels failed them.”
Call centre failures
According to the report, call centres generated 24% of channel-related conversation, the largest share, but were also among the worst-performing channels.
Across the providers, consumers complained about interactive voice response loops, long waiting times, calls ending in disconnections, agents lacking authority to resolve problems and cancellation requests that were not processed.
Lamb says this suggests that some of the frustration appearing on social media originated in failures across traditional service channels.
“Call centres were the most discussed service channel, accounting for 24% of conversation, but they also ranked among the worst-performing channels. Much of the frustration on social media therefore started elsewhere.”
She notes that operators need to improve the balance between automated services and human intervention.
AI to the rescue
Lamb believes artificial intelligence (AI) could help operators deal with high volumes of routine customer queries, while allowing human agents to focus on more complicated problems.
“Nearly 80% of customer queries were simple enough for AI to handle, which could free up agents to focus on more complex complaints and cancellation requests that need human intervention.”
The opportunity, she says, was not simply to automate customer service, but to deploy automation where it could reduce waiting times, while ensuring complicated cases were escalated to people capable of resolving them.
“The providers that get that balance right will be better placed to improve both response times and the overall customer experience.”
Data reliability
The analysis found that consumer trust increasingly hinges not simply on network coverage but on whether customers receive what they believe they paid for.
Rain and Cell C performed strongly in this area, with positive sentiment associated with clear or fixed-value propositions and perceptions of reliable data.
According to the report, Rain’s unlimited 5G WiFi offering generated particularly strong positive sentiment, with consumers praising connectivity and speeds for activities including streaming, learning and entertainment.
It notes that Cell C benefited from positive discussions around coverage and data reliability, particularly in areas where consumers perceived rival networks to be weaker.
By contrast, MTN faced complaints about data bundles disappearing within hours, usage levels that customers believed did not correspond with their actual consumption and bundles that were not credited.
Account administration was the most negative customer-experience category, recording -80% net sentiment.
DataEQ says billing errors, unauthorised deductions and failed cancellations were the primary sources of dissatisfaction.
Consumers reported continuing to be billed after requesting cancellations and having to make repeated contacts to resolve account problems.
The report says positive loyalty conversation was largely campaign-driven, including prize mechanics, hashtag competitions, recharge-to-win activity and reward redemptions, rather than evidence of loyalty earned through consistently positive service experiences.
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