The much-anticipated launch of fourth cellular network 8ta took place on 15 October at a very bling evening event, where 8ta hosted some 900-odd of the industry’s great and good. 8ta is the consumer arm of Telkom Mobile, and its business offering (once it launches) will be branded as Telkom Business.

The new operator is walking into an already saturated market, with some 120 percent SIM-card penetration and an estimated 80 percent actual cellphone-to-person penetration (the difference is accounted for in people owning multiple SIMs, SIM cards in tracking devices, LCRs, etc.).