There is no doubt that for many South Africans, their cellphone is something they just cannot leave home without. The cellphone of today is becoming more and more of a portable all-in-one device that can wake you up in the morning to begin with, keep you entertained with music and games, enable you to take really incredible photo’s, allow you access to the internet and still provide you with increasingly advanced voice and messaging options – honestly the list of modern cellphone attributes just seems to go on and on…

Having stated the obvious, it is interesting to note that over 80% of South Africans own and use a cellphone. South African’s also tend to enjoy the latest in cellphone technology – very few of us still use a phone that isn’t at least MMS enabled.

So the question is – what could cellphone marketing mean for you?

Whether this be for security reasons, business reasons or just because they need to be able to contact whomever they whenever they want,

Some South Africa’s Telecommunications Stats:

• Telecommunications is one of the fastest growing sectors of South Africa's economy, reflecting the rapid growth of mobile telephony in the country.
• Telephones - Main lines in use: 4.729 million (2005)
• Telephones – Mobile Cellular in use: 39.66 million (2006)
• The communications sector, together with transport and storage, accounts for almost 10% of gross domestic product (GDP).
• With a network that is 99.9% digital and includes the latest in fixed-line, wireless and satellite communication, the country has the most developed telecoms network in Africa.
• South Africa is the fourth-fastest growing mobile communications market in the world.
• The country's three cellular network operators - Vodacom, MTN and Cell C - provide telephony to over 39-million subscribers or nearly 80% of the population.
• The introduction of number portability as well as the arrival in 2006 of Virgin Mobile, a virtual network service provider that operates in partnership with Cell C, has helped enhance competition.
• Wider access to broadband, ADSL and 3G access has boosted internet connectivity, with the number of South African internet browsers increasing by 121% in two years, from 1.8-million in May 2005 to 3.8-million in May 2007, according to research firm Nielsen/NetRatings.
• Internet Hosts: 1.088 million (2007)
• Internet Users: 5.1 million (2005)
• Bandwidth remains relatively low but the Cabinet approved laws early in 2008 to enable the formation of Infraco, a new state-owned company that will provide broadband capacity through fibre-optic cables to other telecoms operators in the country.
• Cape Town, Durban, Johannesburg and Pretoria have launched public-private initiatives to build their own broadband networks in order to provide residents with cheaper voice and data services.
• The penetration of cellphone banking in South Africa has more than doubled in one year, while usage will climb even more sharply in the coming year, according to the Mobility 2007 study by technology research firm World Wide Worx.
• Mobile commerce - purchases and payments via a cellphone - has also increased significantly in South Africa, from 7% of urban cellphone users last year to 12% this year. However, most of these purchases were for prepaid airtime top-ups, which are simple to do on a cellphone, as opposed to product or service payments.
• Corporate use of WiFi - small networks that allow wireless access to the internet - has fallen back after a steady rise, while the use of 3G - wireless broadband provided by the mobile networks - has rocketed.

SOURCE: www.phonexafrica.co.za