SA unhappy with cellphone operators
2012-08-01 09:22
Cape Town - The majority of mobile phone subscribers in South African are unhappy with the operators, industry research has shown.
A massive 70% of subscribers are unhappy with their current network and a significant percentage would consider switching, according to research from independent ad network InMobi.
Counter-intuitively, price is not the most compelling complaint as only 17% directly indicated that they were unhappy because of it.
Most (25%) are frustrated with limited data coverage, and hidden charges (8%) and customer service (7%) made up the top four grievances.
The research suggested that 36% would switch to a competing network if it offered better data coverage and offers to be on the same network as friends or family attracted 31% of interest.
Data revenues
As competition in the South African market heats up, the operators have been driving data revenues up through various offers.
"The demand remains strong; there's strong competition in the SA market. Data revenue is up 24% year-on-year. The active data customers [are] up 35%: Now just over 12 million [and] all of the 12 million are buying data bundles on a monthly basis," Vodacom CEO Pieter Uys told News24 when the operator released its annual results.
The survey showed that 46% of mobile phone users would switch networks if the right offer came along and 11% are actively looking to switch.
In the eyes of consumers, Vodacom has the strongest brand association, scoring 57% for customer service, 60% for network coverage, and 42% for value.
MTN consistently scored in second place, average just over 30%. Cell C was third, but Telkom's 8ta didn't make it on to the results.
Cell C is on a charge to increase its market share in SA and recently launched its 99 Cents for Real campaign.
New CEO Alan Knott-Craig said that the operator was on a charge to build a better network.
Smartphones
"The number one priority is I have to make sure that we can build a world class quality network with a footprint which is competitive or better than the other network operators. We cannot build a company without a proper network," he told News24.
According to the InMobi survey, 51% of consumers want free bonus talk time and 38% want bonus data from their network.
The growth is data is particularly driven by smartphones which have growing in SA as pricing continues to decline and a growing percentage have a data bundle attached, Vodacom said.
"Smartphones remain the key driver of the data revenue growth - the active smartphones growing by two million in the year. Smartphones are now making up a fifth of our active handsets," said Uys.
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