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<p>In December last year, a slew of recommendations were made by the competition commission for Vodacom and MTN to reduce data prices in the region of 30 to 50 per cent. James Hodge, Chief Economist at the Competition Commission argues the reforms will make the sector more competitive, reduce costs and overcome regulatory hurdles – both of which support investment in the sector. He joins CNBC Africa for more.</p>


Cutting the costs: Why lower data prices would be good for SA telecoms giants

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<p>The Competition Commission of South Africa recently announced that South African telecoms companies MTN and Vodacom must reduce the prices of their mobile data. While consumers rejoiced at this news, critics argued that the commission had overreached. Sabelo Dlamini, Senior Research and consulting Manager at the International Data Corporation of South Africa says that he thinks the competition commission did not take the right approach to this. He joins CNBC Africa for more.</p>


Competition Commission of SA rides ‘data must fall’ wave

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<p>Telkom is in agreement with the Competition Commission’s final findings on its data market inquiry, that MTN and Vodacom dominate South Africa’s market. Telkom’s obligations are different to that of MTN and Vodacom as they have 3 months to engage with the commission to discuss fixed line roaming and national roaming infrastructure adjustments. Joining CNBC Africa to unpack more is Siyabonga Mahlangu, Group Executive of Regulatory Affairs at Telkom.</p>


Telkom reacts to Commission’s findings on data prices

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<p>Joining CNBC Africa for a look at the local markets is Nesan Nair, Senior Portfolio Manager at Sasfin Securities.</p>


Behind the Vodacom

Behind the Vodacom, MTN & Telkom sell-off

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<p>Seacom has partnered with Vodacom Business Africa to initiate the next chapter of both companies’ African network connectivity ventures. This partnership ensures that Seacom can service customer and partner demands beyond existing markets and across Vodacom’s infrastructure footprint. Seacom Chief Commercial Officer, Steve Briggs joins CNBC Africa for more.</p>


Seacom, Vodacom partner to grow Africa footprint

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<p>South Africa’s biggest and most popular annual gaming event, Vodacom rAge is delivering an adrenaline-filled three days of fun, as visitors Escape to Planet rAge. CNBC Africa’s Busi Lethole spoke to Michael James, Senior Project Manager, Vodacom.</p>


Vodacom rAge expo kicks off at the Dome

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<p>Joining CNBC Africa for a look at today&#8217;s global markets is Neil Wilson, Chief Market Analyst, Markets.com.</p>


Please call me inventor appeals settlement


<p>JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) &#8211; South African mobile phone operator Vodacom Group will spend more than 9 billion rand ($589 million) this year on network enhancements particularly in rural areas in its home market, its Chief Technology Officer said on Thursday.</p>



<p>Vodacom, majority-owned by Britain’s Vodafone, invested 9.6 billion rand in 2018, Andries Delport said during a media briefing.</p>



<p>The investment will be spent on the firm’s rural coverage acceleration programme, replacing and modernising base stations and digital services.</p>



<p>Vodacom has grown its South African rural network coverage significantly over the past six years, covering over 16 million people with 4G/LTE services.</p>



<p>Its 3G network is now available to more than 97% of the South African population living in rural areas and 4G is available to 75%, Delport said.</p>



<p>“Despite the lack of available spectrum, Vodacom has made substantial progress in improving network coverage in both rural and deep rural areas of South Africa,” he said.</p>



<p>“With rural land making up 98.6% of the total land area in South Africa, Vodacom has prioritised connectivity in these regions, facilitating access to the digital resources which many of us take for granted in cities.”</p>



<p>Vodacom has been battling with vandalism and theft at its base stations, where as many as 500 towers out of the 14,000 have either been vandalised or had batteries stolen every month.</p>



<p>“This year alone the investment is about 250 million rand to 300 million that we’ll invest just in batteries,” said Delport.</p>



<p>($1 = 15.2734 rand)</p>



<p>Reporting by Nqobile Dludla; Editing by David Holmes</p>


South Africa’s Vodacom to invest more than $589 million on network enhancements, what you need to know


<p>(Reuters) &#8211; South African mobile phone operator Vodacom Group Ltd on Friday said it has entered an agreement to sell its Business Africa unit’s Angolan operations and assets to Internet Technologies Angola for an undisclosed amount.</p>



<p>Separately, Vodacom, which is majority owned by Vodafone Group Plc, also announced an agreement to sell the unit’s operations in Nigeria, Zambia and Cote d’Ivoire to Synergy Communications.</p>



<p>Vodacom said it will no longer service enterprise customers directly in any of the four markets but will continue to service clients through local service providers.</p>



<p>Reporting by Shariq Khan in Bengaluru; Editing by Rashmi Aich</p>



<p></p>


Vodacom unit plans to sell operations in four African markets, what you need to know

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<p>On the back of their annual results last week, Vodacom has announced that they will be acquiring a majority stake in a South African telecommunications group called Internet of things technology company. The Company has had expansion overseas and has been considered by Vodacom for their world leading technological innovations. CEO of Vodacom Business, William Mzimba and CEO of IoT.nxt, Nico Steyn join CNBC Africa for more.</p>


What Vodacom’s acquisition of IoT.nxt really means


<p>JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) &#8211; South Africa’s mobile phone operator Vodacom reported a 6.6% drop in full-year earnings due to one-off costs related to a share scheme offered to black investors.</p>



<p>Headline earnings per share (EPS) for the full-year ended March fell to 862 cents from 923 cents a year earlier.</p>



<p>Headline EPS is the main profit measure in South Africa and strips out certain one-off items.</p>



<p>Vodacom, which is majority owned by Vodafone, concluded a broad-based black economic empowerment (BEE) ownership deal in September, which saw Vodacom issue additional shares.</p>



<p>Under black economic empowerment rules, South African companies are encouraged to meet quotas on black ownership, employment and procurement as part of a drive to reverse decades of exclusion under apartheid.</p>



<p>It also updated its medium-term capital expenditure target to reflect the IFRS 15 accounting standard and also changed its profitability target to operating profit from earnings before interest and taxes to include the benefits of the Kenyan Safaricom acquisition.</p>



<p>Medium-term group capex is now expected to be in the range of 13%-14.5% from 12%-14%, while the operating profit target is expected to be in the mid-high single digit growth rate.</p>



<p>Vodacom, which competes with MTN group and Telkom, said group service revenue jumped 5 percent, led by a strong performance overseas.</p>



<p>“It was a stellar year for our International portfolio where economic and political environments have improved,” group Chief Executive Officer Shameel Joosub said in a statement.</p>



<p>Vodacom grew service revenue there by 15.6 percent and expanded margins, while in South Africa service revenue inched up by 2.1 percent due to price cuts and a stagnant economy.</p>



<p>South Africa has been considering regulating the price of internet data as well as out-of-bundle charges as part of efforts to bring costs down.</p>



<p>Reporting by Nqobile Dludla; Editing by Himani Sarkar and Louise Heavens </p>


South Africa’s Vodacom reported a 6.6% drop in earnings, here’s why

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<p>The Competition Commission report into the high cost of data has named the South African mobile heavyweights for exploiting consumers. The report found that Vodacom and MTN were charging far more for data in South Africa than any other countries that they operate in. Both MTN and Telkom share prices were under pressure. James Hodge a Chief Economist at the Competition Commission joins CNBC Africa for more.</p>


Competition watchdog slams Vodacom, MTN for high data costs

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<p>South African users of data packages will have to hold on a little longer as the independent communication authority of South Africa has extended the deadline for certain networks to implement the roll over data service. This service will enable data users to transfer unused from one month over to the next without worrying about data expiration. The deadline for the change of legislation was scheduled for today however the ICASA board has extended the deadline for certain networks.  ICASA has extended the date for the implementation of the regulations to 12 April 2019.</p>


Roll over data costs regulations postponed

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<p>A young South African man has been stuck in a dispute of almost twenty years, based on the alleged theft of his own intellectual property by a local telecoms giant.</p>


Vodacom responds to #PleaseCallMe protests


<p><em>MTN has the fastest internet speed among South Africa&#8217;s mobile operators, according to MyBroadband Insights Q4 2018 Mobile Network Quality Report. In Africa Mad</em>agascar <em>does, according to UK analytics firm Cable&#8217;s Worldwide broadband speed league 2018, which is based on over 163m speed tests in 200 countries.</em>  </p>



<p>By  MyBroadband  </p>



<p>The report is based on 383,479 speed tests which were performed by thousands
of MyBroadband Android Speed Test App users across South Africa between 1
October 2018 and 31 December 2018.</p>



<p>The research shows that South Africa had an average mobile download speed of
22.18Mbps during the period.</p>



<p>MTN had the highest average download speed at 26.95Mbps, followed by Vodacom on 26.78Mbps, Rain on 21.67Mbps, Telkom on 19.83Mbps, and Cell C on 15.56Mbps.</p>



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="http://cnbc.africa/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/MTN.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-325544"/></figure>



<p>MyBroadband Insights director Marius Hollenbach said the results were in
line with expectations and closely tracked the network investments by mobile
operators.</p>



<p>MTN has invested R43.6 billion over the last four years to expand its 3G and
LTE network footprint across South Africa.</p>



<p>This investment helped MTN to launch 11,000 LTE sites which brought its 4G
population coverage in the country up to 90%.</p>



<p>Hollenbach highlighted that MTN’s network investment over the past few years
was significantly higher than Vodacom’s, and the results now show the impact of
this investment.</p>



<p><strong>Best mobile network in South Africa</strong></p>



<p>To determine the best mobile network in South Africa, a “Network Quality Score”
was calculated for each network using download speed, upload speed, and
latency.</p>



<p>The Network Quality Score out of 10 shows how the network performed in
relation to other networks.</p>



<p>MTN reigned supreme with a Network Quality Score of 10.00, followed by Vodacom
on 9.68, Rain on 8.04, Telkom on 6.88, and Cell C on 6.16.</p>



<p>The table below provides an overview of the mobile network rankings in South
Africa.</p>



<table class="wp-block-table"><tbody><tr><td>
  <strong>Operator</strong> 
  </td><td>
  <strong>Latency
  (ms)</strong> 
  </td><td>
  <strong>Download
  Speed (Mbps)</strong>
  
  </td><td>
  <strong>Upload
  Speed (Mbps)</strong>
  
  </td><td>
  <strong>Network
  Score</strong>
  
  </td></tr><tr><td>
  MTN
  
  </td><td>
  37
  
  </td><td>
  26.95
  
  </td><td>
  12.15
  
  </td><td>
  <strong>10.00</strong> 
  </td></tr><tr><td>
  Vodacom
  
  </td><td>
  39
  
  </td><td>
  26.78
  
  </td><td>
  11.08
  
  </td><td>
  <strong>9.68</strong> 
  </td></tr><tr><td>
  Rain
  
  </td><td>
  44
  
  </td><td>
  21.67
  
  </td><td>
  9.26
  
  </td><td>
  <strong>8.04</strong> 
  </td></tr><tr><td>
  Telkom
  
  </td><td>
  44
  
  </td><td>
  19.83
  
  </td><td>
  4.79
  
  </td><td>
  <strong>6.88</strong> 
  </td></tr><tr><td>
  Cell
  C 
  </td><td>
  53
  
  </td><td>
  15.56
  
  </td><td>
  7.87
  
  </td><td>
  <strong>6.16</strong> 
  </td></tr></tbody></table>


This SA mobile operator has the fastest internet speed

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<p>Vodacom CEO, Shameel Joosub joins CNBC Africa to look into the company’s interim results for the six months ended 30 September which saw them add 4.8 million customers.</p>


Vodacom adds 4.8mn customers to boost H1 earnings

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<p>Competition Commissioner Tembinkosi Bonakele speaks to CNBC Africa on what the Competition Commission is doing to protect consumers from exorbitant data costs in the country.</p>


Vodacom

Cutting the costs: Why lower data prices would be good for SA telecoms giants

Competition Commission of SA rides ‘data must fall’ wave

Telkom reacts to Commission’s findings on data prices

Behind the Vodacom, MTN & Telkom sell-off

Seacom, Vodacom partner to grow Africa footprint

Vodacom rAge expo kicks off at the Dome

Please call me inventor appeals settlement

South Africa’s Vodacom to invest more than $589 million on network enhancements, what you need to know

Vodacom unit plans to sell operations in four African markets, what you need to know

What Vodacom’s acquisition of IoT.nxt really means

South Africa’s Vodacom reported a 6.6% drop in earnings, here’s why

Competition watchdog slams Vodacom, MTN for high data costs

Roll over data costs regulations postponed

Vodacom responds to #PleaseCallMe protests

This SA mobile operator has the fastest internet speed

Vodacom adds 4.8mn customers to boost H1 earnings

Competition Commissioner Tembinkosi Bonakele gives update on inquiry into high data prices

News Tips

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Vodacom

Cutting the costs: Why lower data prices would be good for SA telecoms giants

Competition Commission of SA rides ‘data must fall’ wave

Telkom reacts to Commission’s findings on data prices

Behind the Vodacom, MTN & Telkom sell-off

Seacom, Vodacom partner to grow Africa footprint

Vodacom rAge expo kicks off at the Dome

Please call me inventor appeals settlement

South Africa’s Vodacom to invest more than $589 million on network enhancements, what you need to know

Vodacom unit plans to sell operations in four African markets, what you need to know

What Vodacom’s acquisition of IoT.nxt really means

South Africa’s Vodacom reported a 6.6% drop in earnings, here’s why

Competition watchdog slams Vodacom, MTN for high data costs

Roll over data costs regulations postponed

Vodacom responds to #PleaseCallMe protests

This SA mobile operator has the fastest internet speed

Vodacom adds 4.8mn customers to boost H1 earnings

Competition Commissioner Tembinkosi Bonakele gives update on inquiry into high data prices

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