Sitholizwe Mdlalose, Vodacom SA’s CEO, spoke to Bizcommunity at the GSMA report launch on the eve of Africa Tech Festival. He shared candidly about the company’s focus on customer connection, the role of LEO satellite technology, the investment in 5G, and his disappointment in the collapse of the Maziv deal.
Sitholizwe Mdlalose, CEO of Vodacom SA, joined his MNO peers on a GSMA panel ahead of Africa Tech Festival.
“We’ve always said our core purpose is connecting our customers,” he said.
“Whether we can connect our customers through undersea cables, terrestrial satellites, that’s really kind of neither here nor there.”
He highlighted the importance of LEO satellite technology, particularly for rural and outlying areas.
“I think satellite technology increasingly will have its place in terms of how we do that. At the moment, primarily around sort of more rural areas as well, more outlying areas where it seems more effective to deploy that.”
While he acknowledged the challenges of the investment in 5G in Europe, Mdlalose highlights the importance of migrating customers from 2G and 3G to 4G and 5G.
When we roll out our network and we modernise our network, ultimately what we’re doing is we are doing that on the 4G layer, but it’s very easy to then turn on 5G because the network is modernised and ready for that.
Disappointment in Maziv deal collapse
Mdlalose expressed still sees growth potential in connecting new customers.
While growth has slowed to single digits for mobile customers, he says that fibre connections is still untapped.
“That’s why we’ve been so strong around our potential transaction with CIVH, which by the way, of course, we’re massively disappointed about the tribunal sort of outcome. But look, we’ll continue to pursue that.”
He defended the deal against monopoly concerns, highlighting Vodacom’s small market share in the fibre market.
“We’re barely above a three percent market share in the fibre market,” he explained.
“So actually, it would be far from a monopoly at all.”
SMS replacement
Mdlalose also acknowledged the decline in SMS revenue, particularly on the commercial side, due to the rise of RCS and WhatsApp.
However, he believes that market success lies in the need for the industry to adapt and grow the overall pie.
I think it’s ultimately how, as an industry, we grow the pie in total and what does that look like to step into new areas to bring through different areas like IoT, like cloud and hosting and so on.
He used that response to frame his answer to Bizcommunity Vodacom pulling back on RCS, explaining that the company is responding to market trends and customer needs.
“When you move away from SMS, you lose security in areas like banking apps, where SMS still plays a vital role,” he explained.
Mdlalose is optimistic about the potential of the digital connectivity market in South Africa and in Vodacom’s role in developing that potential.
