Cape Town - Africa's biggest cellphone operator, MTN, believes the South African market is close to saturation and is focusing on profitability, not subscribers, as the scramble for the final few customers hots up.
MTN South Africa managing director Maanda Manyatshe denied on Thursday that the firm had dropped the ball at home as it expanded aggressively into the rest of the continent, despite statistics showing rival Vodacom was winning market share.
"We have made the decision that we are not going to chase market share at all costs.
"We need a balance between market share and EBIT (earnings before interest and tax)," he told Reuters.
Reaching saturation
Manyatshe said that since more than two-thirds of South Africans now owned a cellphone, its home market was reaching saturation, adding that operators were unlikely to snare many new subscribers with tariffs at present levels.
"I think we are closer to maturity than we really acknowledge," he said on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum Africa summit in Cape Town.
He said significant new subscriber growth would come only with a major drop in handset prices.
MTN is the biggest operator in sub-Saharan Africa with 24.185 million customers at the end of the first quarter.
In South Africa, its biggest market, its customer base fell by 36 000 to 10.199 million in the three months to end-March.
Distracted by scramble
Analysts say MTN has been distracted by its scramble for high-growth assets abroad, giving Vodacom, which is South Africa's leading operator, with more than half the total customers, a chance to steal market share at home.
Vodacom, owned by South African fixed-line operator Telkom and Britain's Vodafone, has missed out on the race for African telecoms assets.
While it is comfortably ahead of rivals at home, investors ask where future growth lies.
Manyatshe also warned that a new law aimed at fighting crime, which would force operators to register the personal details of all customers, could cost the company about R100m.
Operators say that meeting government demands that it register existing users within a year is impossible, especially in a market dominated by pre-paid customers who often do not have a fixed address or ID number.
Registering customers
"That means that South Africa as a whole must register about 9 000 customers every day for the next 12 months.
"With all the good intentions of the cellphone operators they will probably not be able to do that," said Manyatshe.
He said the introduction of number portability - which would allow South Africans to switch operators, but keep their
phone number - had cost the country's three operators R100m each. It would be introduced in the next few months.