Every man, woman and child?

February 15, 2010
Fact: #

MTN’s South African subscriber base is 16.4 million, Vodacom claims 27.1 million customers, and Cell C has roughly 6.5 million. This brings the total claimed South African cell phone subscriber base to 50 million, more than the total population of South Africa, 49.1 million. (mtn-investor.com, Vodacom News Release 2 Feb 2010, www.ogertelecom.com, LFS 2009Q3)

This week’s theme: Cell phones in SA

12 responses to “Every man, woman and child?”

DAVID DICKENS

15 years Ago
The real question here is how many RICA Clients do they each have ?
Pay as U go clients have more than one simm and with each new sales/marketing drive e.g. 46664 simm and the cellc Hola 7 AND SUCH MAKES PEOPLE go in pick up a simm not out of loyalty or great service but the R5 free airtime – Which of these remain active after the special anyones guess but I bet no one will say. But they do claim the numbers.
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Navashnee

15 years Ago
How can this be? It must be in the definition of a subscriber.
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1. amnon
  
  15 years Ago
  Vodacom’s total reflects “customers registered on Vodacom’s network, which have not been disconnected, including inactive customers.”
  
  MTN says “subscribers are customers who have participated in a revenue generating activity in the last 90 days.”
  
  Reply
Lynn M.

15 years Ago
There are people who have sim cards form all 3 networks and yes they do still account for registered numbers that may not be in use anymore. Perhaps the stats will change a little once everyone is registered with RICA
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anon

15 years Ago
As I understand it, Vodacom has a loose definition of ‘inactive’ – translates to about 7 months of inactivity before not being counted. RICA kicked off around August, so I guess around March, you should see Vodacom’s base size shrinking dramatically.
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Muntu

15 years Ago
The figure includes the sim cards used on 3G modems. In my house we have four active sim cards from one provider. So it is possible that the figure may be correct.
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Kenneth

15 years Ago
“I” have various contracts with different service providers- not one of which is in my own name- all are through different companies/C.C’S/ETC
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amnon

15 years Ago
The AMPS 2009A survey (a national survey of South African consumers, aged 16+) gives the following subscriber numbers in response to the question: “And to which network is this cellphone linked?”

Network provider Subscribers (millions)

MTN 9.5

Vodacom 10.2

Cell C 2.3
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1. amnon
  
  15 years Ago
  … and 0.7 million customers for Virgin Mobile.
  
  Reply
Terry Roe

15 years Ago
Although there are reasons to believe that the cell figures claimed may be a little inflated, there is more reason to believe the population figures are also very suspect. In June 1996, my son was shown that our country’s population stood at 57 million. After the 2001 National census, after not a single one of our personal families’ and friends’ homes were called on in different towns and provinces, the population claimed was 16 million less than my son was shown in June of 1996. Many serious cover-ups and fictitious facts will be exposed in 2010 regarding vital issues in the new South Africa.
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1. amnon
  
  15 years Ago
  The official population estimates for South Africa, from StatsSA
  
  Year Estimate (millions)
  
  1996 40.6
  
  2001 44.8
  
  2007 (Community Survey) 48.5
  
  2009 (LFS 2009Q3) 49.1
  
  Have you got a source for your 57 million figure?
  
  Reply
Natan

15 years Ago
What about the fifteen million legal/illegal immigrants?
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