Telecommunications group Vodacom on Friday reiterated that it believed that the South African telecommunications industry was vibrant and competitive and that a lot had been achieved to grow the sector.

Presenting at the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa’s public hearings on the state of competition in the information and communication technology sector, Vodacom executive head of market regulations Louw Middel stated that the country’s four mobile operators were doing an “excellent” job in connecting South Africans to mobile networks at lower rates.

The country’s current mobile Sim penetration of 145%, with 71% being unique subscribers, was expected to increase to a Sim penetration of 170% by 2017, with a 78% rate of penetration of unique subscribers.

Middle commented that the operators were performing well, with Vodacom reporting year-on-year growth and Cell C achieving 50% subscriber growth with the addition of over nine-million new subscribers within the past two years.

This performance was also an outcome of competition, despite Vodacom and rival MTN still boasting 80% of the market share in the country.

Vodacom head of innovation Jannie van Zyl explained that the continuous innovation seen in the country was a “strong” indicator of a competitive market.

The market had seen the introduction of extensive network innovation, such as in-flight broadband and fourth-generation (4G) technologies, service innovation, including solutions for enterprise and small business, and new innovation, such as mobile money.

“There is a fair amount of innovation deployed,” he noted, adding that operators had no choice but to constantly develop new technologies and services to stay competitive.

Van Zyl’s comments came as Vodacom expanded its long-term evolution- (LTE-) enabled sites to 1 389 and its third-generation sites to 7 541 by the end of the September quarter and had started a programme to enable 4G across its network.

Cell C indicated that it would soon announce its plans regarding LTE deployment, while MTN and Telkom Mobile also gained traction in their respective nationwide roll-outs of the next-generation technology.

Telkom Mobile this week outlined plans for a December launch of LTE-Advanced, with speeds of more than 200 Mb/s, across 50 suburbs in Gauteng, KwaZulu-Natal and the Western Cape.