This is the view of Johan Nel, senior management consultant at technology industry research and advisory firm BMIT , who said the positive effects of MVNO competition in the mobile market extend to the various sectors each virtual operator serves - retail or banking, for example.
"The MVNO market has started organising itself around sectors like banking, ISPs, media, telco and retail," Nel said at a BMIT-hosted industry event in Johannesburg on Thursday. MVNOs typically provide own-branded services using infrastructure provided by the mobile network operators.
There are now almost 30 MVNOs in South Africa.
"Each subsector has mini-propositions where each player competes against its peers, other MVNOs and even the larger mobile network operators, which is very good for the market," Nel said.
One of the most prominent examples of where an MVNO offering acts as a competitive differentiator is in banking, where Capitec Connect, Standard Bank Connect and FNB Connect use voice and data plans to bolster their core banking propositions.