Cell C entered the telco market in 2001, seven years after the launch of the two incumbents, Vodacom and MTN. That’s a pretty big head start, and that period of market dominance gave Vodacom and MTN the liquidity to reinvest in, and expand, their network infrastructure, boosting coverage and improving quality by doing so. As Alison Gillwald, the executive director of Research ICT Africa, explained last year, the dominance of the incumbents in the wholesale market prevents the late entrants, like Cell C and Telkom Mobile, from competing fairly. This situation allows more established players to dramatically reduce prices in order to attract price-sensitive consumers, leaving the younger networks unable to compete on price or quality.

So, what do the smaller operators do? They reinvent themselves.