After years of seemingly little happening in the South African telecommunications space, 2008 has proved to be a rather exciting year. Telkom finally faces genuine competition as Neotel begins to roll out consumer services, MTN is rolling out services in the Middle East, Cell C has turned a profit and Vodacom has promised to deliver "ultra-low-cost handsets".

On the regulatory side, there has been a legal challenge to the issuing of licences under the Electronic Communications Act (ECA), as well as a promise from the Communications Minister that local loop unbundling will take shape within four years. There has also been a great deal of discussion around large potential mergers and acquisitions within the telecoms sector.