Mobile wars turn to customer retention

The war between mobile operators in Africa has turned from customer acquisition to customer retention, according to Informa Telecoms and Media.

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Speaking at the 14th annual AfricaCom conference in Cape Town on Wednesday, Nick Jotischky, principal analyst at Informa Telecoms and Media highlighted a fight for customer interest by operators amid many saturated African markets, with the importance of providing value added content.

He noted a rapid increase of smartphones in more developed markets including SA.

He said that loyalty had become a major interest for providers with a recent survey by Informa showing that 71% of respondents were less loyal to operators, with only 16% generally more loyal to operators.

The factors diving loyalty include discounted bundles and quality of network, while those obstacles to customer loyalty include more flexible billing systems.

Informa said that By 2015, a fifth of internet traffic would be carried by cellular networks, versus the current 3% globally.

For Johan Dennelind, CEO International at Vodacom Group (VOD), this figure would be more accurate if reversed. He said he expected mobile internet traffic to account for four fifths of internet traffic on the content.