Research just released shows that at the of end 2008, there were 1.47 active mobile phone accounts in South Africa per user. The figures show 50 million phones in the country - but the entire population is somewhere around 48 million, including those too young or too old to have a mobile.
By those estimates, there are roughly 34 million mobile phone users in South Africa. What causes the 16 million device disparity between users and active accounts? There are a number of reasons, according to World Wide Worx:
- Many users own more than one device - in order to avoid high interconnection charges between networks.
- A new SIM can cost as little as 50c. So it's cheap for people to have multiple SIMs for one device.
- The introduction of pre-paid accounts saw SIM usage soar
- Poor fixed internet infrastructure makes mobile devices the primary access for banking, advertising and internet access
- A new SIM can cost as little as 50c. So it's cheap for people to have multiple SIMs for one device.
- The introduction of pre-paid accounts saw SIM usage soar
- Poor fixed internet infrastructure makes mobile devices the primary access for banking, advertising and internet access
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