voice calls are dying in South Africa

A report on the state of the mobile ecosystem in South Africa has found that voice is in decline, especially among younger demographics.

According to the Mobility 2014 research study, conducted by World Wide Worx with the backing of First National Bank, people in the 19 - 24 age group are abandoning spending on voice calls in favour of data.

The results show that voice declined to 56% of the group's cellphone expense, down around 10% from 2012, while spending on data increased from 17% to 24%.

But it's not only young people: Spending on voice calls declined to 65% as a share of mobile expense across all demographics, down from 77% in 2010.

Data spend, on the other hand increased from 12% to 16%.

Spectrum

"Older users continue to spend far more overall, but the powerful shift in spend from voice to data will work its way up the age segments in the coming years," said Arthur Goldstuck, managing director of World Wide Worx.

Mobile operators have noticed the shift and there have been a variety of data offers to encourage consumers to utilise the service.

source: www.news24.com

MTN makes data deals permanent

Mobile data price war continue to benefit South African consumers as the operators drop the cost of connecting smart devices to the internet.

MTN on Wednesday announced that its data promotions were now permanent as the company looked to take on Vodacom in SA.

"We at first extended the data offerings promotion to our customers, but have now decided to make it permanent to provide our customers a bold, new digital world," said Brian Gould Gouldie, chief Marketing Officer at MTN SA.

Junior operator Cell C currently offers data at 15c per megabyte and the price contributed to disrupting the data market. Competitors reacted with a variety of pricing offers to reduce the cost of smartphone data.

MTN's data promotions of R10 for 20MB up to R249 for 2GB are now permanent.
The company hinted that the rise in demand from consumers had driven the price cut.
"The Internet Bundle rate reduction has proven to be extremely successful with customers, addressing their need to be connected at all times, with the rise of internet data consumption requirements," said Gouldie.
According to the Mobility 2014 research study, conducted by World Wide Worx with the backing of First National Bank, people in the 19 - 24 age group are abandoning spending on voice calls in favour of data.
The results show that voice declined to 56% of the group's cellphone expense, down around 10% from 2012, while spending on data increased from 17% to 24%.

Data spend, on the other hand increased from 12% to 16%.

For operators, data has emerged as a key revenue generator and Vodacom reported that data revenue was on a roll, despite price declines.

"Group data revenue increased 29%, even as we actively reduced data prices. In South Africa as an example, the average price per megabyte came down 16%," Vodacom CEO Shameel Joosub .

source : www.news24.com

voice calls are dying in south africa

 A report on the state of the mobile ecosystem in South Africa has found that voice is in decline, especially among younger demographics.

According to the Mobility 2014 research study, conducted by World Wide Worx with the backing of First National Bank, people in the 19 - 24 age group are abandoning spending on voice calls in favour of data.

The results show that voice declined to 56% of the group's cellphone expense, down around 10% from 2012, while spending on data increased from 17% to 24%.

But it's not only young people: Spending on voice calls declined to 65% as a share of mobile expense across all demographics, down from 77% in 2010.

Data spend, on the other hand increased from 12% to 16%.

Spectrum

"Older users continue to spend far more overall, but the powerful shift in spend from voice to data will work its way up the age segments in the coming years," said Arthur Goldstuck, managing director of World Wide Worx.

Mobile operators have noticed the shift and there have been a variety of data offers to encourage consumers to utilise the service.

source: news24.com