Telkom has spent years working within the shadow of Vodacom and MTN. That’s altering. South Africa’s third-largest cellular community operator by subscribers has constructed a pay as you go providing that’s pulling prospects away from its greater rivals at a fee that’s now displaying up of their monetary outcomes — and forcing them to reply.
MTN South Africa’s Ebitda — earnings earlier than curiosity, tax, depreciation and amortisation — fell 10.1% in 2025 to R17.7-billion. Pay as you go income declined by 2.3% for the 12 months. MTN Group CEO Ralph Mupita was blunt: “The problem is the pay as you go market.”
MTN has now introduced it’s altering one among its core pay as you go merchandise in an effort to combat again.
That product sits on the centre of this story.
WhatsApp isn’t a social media app in the way in which most individuals in wealthier markets use it. In South Africa it’s infrastructure. Individuals use it to obtain payslips, handle small companies, guide medical appointments and ship cash. For almost all of pay as you go prospects it’s the major method they convey.
Each main South African community sells a WhatsApp bundle. What these bundles really cowl differs considerably.
Telkom’s pay as you go WhatsApp bundles embrace voice and video calling throughout each tier. The each day bundle prices R15 for limitless WhatsApp use over 24 hours. The weekly bundle prices R35. The month-to-month bundle prices R100 for 31 days. All embrace voice-over-internet calls within the WhatsApp app.
MTN shifts technique
MTN’s bundles, till a roll-out introduced this week, excluded voice and video calling on most tiers. Its comparable weekly bundle, additionally priced at R35, capped utilization at 1.5GB, with voice calling excluded. For a similar value, a Telkom buyer bought limitless knowledge and calls.
Vodacom’s place requires extra rationalization.
When requested whether or not its pay as you go WhatsApp bundles embrace voice and video calling, Vodacom mentioned it did. “We will affirm that Vodacom’s pay as you go WhatsApp bundles do embrace the WhatsApp voice and WhatsApp video name functionality,” the corporate mentioned. “The information related to that decision will probably be depleted from their WhatsApp bundle allocation.”
Learn: MTN South Africa struggles as competitors bites in pay as you go
Vodacom’s personal revealed phrases and circumstances describe the product in another way:
- Clause 1 reads: “The WhatsApp Bundle provides prospects entry to WhatsApp messaging app, ship and obtain messages, movies and audio information through WhatsApp.” Calling isn’t talked about.
- Clause 9 then states: “Voice calling and video calling will probably be depleted on the WhatsApp bundles, the place this bundle is depleted continued utilization will probably be consumed through every other energetic knowledge bundle or on the relevant out of bundle fee.”
The 2 clauses don’t inform the identical story. Clause 1 describes a messaging product. Clause 9 confirms that calls draw down the bundle — and that when it runs out, which occurs sooner when calls are made, fees proceed at out-of-bundle charges.
Most prospects learn neither clause. They purchase based mostly on what they’re instructed at level of sale or by means of promoting.
Simo Mkhize, Telkom Shopper’s chief business officer, instructed TechCentral the choice to incorporate calling in WhatsApp got here all the way down to what prospects had been really doing with the app.
“Clients are utilizing WhatsApp as a predominant app of engagement, whether or not it’s for messaging, for enterprise, and due to this fact we felt that permitting calling is what the shoppers additionally want,” he mentioned.
He framed the broader technique round entry for lower-income customers, arguing that WhatsApp has develop into a gateway to the digital economic system — enabling banking and a variety of different providers. “We need to actually look again and say we’re not leaving anybody behind on this digital ecosystem,” he mentioned.
Requested whether or not Telkom was involved about cannibalising its personal voice income, Mkhize reframed the query. “Cannibalisation isn’t the phrase I’d use. The phrase I’d use is evolution.”
The excellence issues. Telkom’s enterprise mannequin is constructed on promoting knowledge, not voice. Together with WhatsApp calling in a pay as you go bundle is a low-cost determination for Telkom. For MTN and Vodacom, whose income fashions nonetheless rely considerably on conventional voice calls, it means accelerating a decline they’re already attempting to handle. MTN South Africa’s voice income fell 4.2% in 2025.
That structural distinction explains why Telkom moved first — and why it took stress on its rivals’ backside strains for the others to observe.
WhatsApp calling
MTN confirmed to TechCentral it’s now including WhatsApp calling to its bundles in a phased roll-out that began this week. “MTN understands that our pay as you go prospects more and more depend on WhatsApp for on a regular basis communication, together with voice and video calling,” the corporate mentioned. It didn’t say what prompted the change.
Learn: Why MTN nonetheless gained’t rule out a take care of Telkom
Cell C, in the meantime, provides WhatsApp bundles with calling however solely throughout outlined promotional home windows — not as a everlasting function. Throughout these home windows, it provides 1GB of WhatsApp for seven days at R10, the bottom weekly value out there. — (c) 2026 NewsCentral Media
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