Vodacom and MTN are racing to get 3G to the market. But is South Africa ready for it just yet?

Annual results presentations for cellular service providers Vodacom and MTNs for the year ending 31 May 2004 proved to be very interesting, with the industry becoming aware that the two are competing to roll out third generation (3G) network services.

The issue was blown open by Vodacom CEO Allan Knott-Craig who announced at Vodacom`s results presentation that his company was already testing the technology, having been granted a test licence by the Independent Communications Authority of SA (Icasa) in May. While there has been speculation in the market for some time about Vodacom and MTN upgrading their networks with 3G capability, most analysts believed 3G was still some way off in South Africa.