SA Will Only Have Two Networks In The Near Future, Cell C Exec Believes

• Cell C’s legal head believes networks will consolidate into one or two networks in South Africa.
• Other telecommunication companies will continue to exist, he says, but will compete on a services level.
• The Electronic Communications Amendment Bill, finalised by Cabinet in August, calls for a shared wholesale telephone network.

It is “inevitable” that South African telecom networks will consolidate within the next few years, Graham Mackinnon, chief legal officer at Cell C South Africa, says.

“It will just be the natural lay of the land,” Mackinnon told delegates at the ITU World Telecom conference in Durban this week.

“Infrastructure sharing and having [a] broader one network or two networks will be the way it works.” 

“I think that there will certainly be much more competition on the service layer and I agree that there is a lot of exciting consumer uses that you can’t actually predict now,” Mackinnon said.

Cell C, South Africa’s third largest cellular network provider, has recently heavily invested in entertainment offering named Black.

By June, Black was the top streaming service among average internet users, Cell C said in its interim results.

The Bill, finalised by Cabinet in August, will force service providers with at least 25% of South Africa network infrastructure to share their infrastructure with competitors.

The Independent Communications Authority of SA (Icasa) is set to prescribe the “cost-oriented” rates these operators can charge their rivals.

Telecommunications Minister Siyabonga Cwele previously told Business Insider South Africa that the Bill will allow for more competition in the cellular market.

That approach will help bring new entrants to the market and cut costs, Cwele said. – Business Insider