MTN's sparkling results were not too surprising in hindsight, but what got everyone talking is that Iran - the country the company was criticised for entering - has overtaken SA in both revenue and subscriber base.
The company's local operation has faced its toughest six months, with the cellular giant losing 52 000 prepaid subscribers over the period under review. MTN only gained a total of 62 000 new subscribers in the local market, leaving its market share at 34%.
More people in SA have a cellphone than a landline, and Telkom figures show the number of people with a fixed phone is declining. It's far easier to get a cellphone in some remote part of the country than it is to lay kilometres and kilometres of cabling.
The simple fact is that the local market is saturated. Something like eight or nine out of 10 citizens have a handset. But, this doesn't take into account the fact that some folk may have more than one cellphone.
Vodacom has pointed out that the new SIM card registration legislation - the Regulation of Interception of Communications and Provision of Communication-Related Information Act - will trim penetration, and final figures will show 100% of the country has handsets, and not 110%, for example.
Frankly, cellular operators should have seen this coming. Virgin Mobile may well have done, when it launched. It said it was going after the top-end of the market, and aiming to entice subscribers away from the other networks.
So what?
Cellular operators can count on subscribers for annuity revenue, sure. But the bulk of the population is on prepaid cards. And these are the sort of people - RICA or no RICA - who will shop around for the latest, greatest special.
I would. If one operator was offering me much cheaper airtime than another, I'd put up with the paperwork and go over to a new operator. Ditto contracts. If I thought I could get a better deal by porting, I would do that. We're in a recession, and every cent counts.
And the operators do recognise this, and are offering “rewards”. But these are limited to prepaid SIMs, like Vodacom's call-all-night offering. And, frankly, I don't think much of these “rewards”. Who is up at midnight to make calls? Probably only those idiots who keep “mis-calling” me at odd hours, repeatedly.
Get real
None of these rewards mean anything in my life. And neither do freebies like a Nintendo Wii, especially not if these costs are actually built into the cost of the contract, which is quite likely.
Operators need to understand they now have to actively try to keep subscribers. They need to offer real service. And I don't just mean actually calling me back after I leave a message, or sending me itemised billing every month as promised, which doesn't happen too often.
Nope - they are going to have to go beyond that. They need to add extra value and services. A deal that offered me free e-mail for a year, or a limited amount of free Internet surfing, would be one plan.
More people in SA have a cellphone than a landline.
Nicola Mawson, group financial editor, ITWeb
Virgin Mobile, again, has sat up and taken notice. Although its free SMS bundle died after too many text messages were being sent, it has still got the offering, although limited to 1 000 a month.
The cellphone manufacturers are also getting it right. Look at Nokia as an example: buy a phone and get a year's free music downloads. This is an awesome deal, and a good example of what the cellular companies should be doing.
Cellular companies have the ability to do exactly that. What about hosting something cool, like a South African YouTube in their data centres, and make the content free? Hey, they could even use this as a marketing tool.
South Africans, as lazy as we may be, are starting to sit up and take notice that service is just not up to scratch. Just have a look at the feedback on both our Web site and consumer complaint site hellopeter.com.
Unless, of course, the operators have all colluded and decided that if none of them up their game, we will stay schtum. And that will be a case for the Competition Commission.
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