Storm from India set to uproot SA's mobile model
Mobile network operators in South Africa must change their business models or face steady decline
Mobile network operators in South Africa must change their business models or face steady decline. This warning came from senior executives at this week's Mobile World Congress, the largest gathering of mobile industry professionals. The annual event drew 100,000 delegates to Barcelona this year. A crucial talking point was the fact that data demand and revenue continued growing, while revenues as well as margins for voice were falling. "The biggest trend we see in the African mobile industry is competition to acquire customers for data because it offers margins far greater than for voice," said Sherry Zameer, senior vice-president of Gemalto, a digital security company that is also the world's largest manufacturer of cards. "We're starting to see very aggressive competition for tariffs, especially around data services. But, just as with voice, the average margin per user of data is also on decline."This posed a massive challenge to networks since an increase in volume of demand pai...
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