According to the Institute of Development Studies at the University of Nairobi, the total number of mobile phone subscriptions increased from 962 million in 2001 to six billion in 2011, or 867 phones per 1,000 people. Developing countries account for more than 75% of global subscriptions. The UN reports that in Africa, where mobile phones were able to leapfrog over often failing landline systems, the total number of mobile telephone connections grew at an average rate of 30% per annum since 2001, and that by 2011 over 60% of the population was connected.

In South Africa, the continent’s strongest economy, mobile phone use has gone from 17 percent of adults in 2000 to 76 percent in 2010. Today, more South Africans – 29 million – use mobile phones than radio (28 million), TV (27 million) or personal computers (6 million). Only 5 million South Africans use landline phones.

Just 16% of the population reports never using a mobile phone; 72% report owning their own phone, and another 9% report access to a mobile phone in their household.

Access to the Internet is growing at a considerably slower pace. In the 20 countries surveyed, access at least monthly has increased only 4 points from 2008, increasing from 11% to 15%. North Africans far surpass residents of other regions. Roughly one in three (34%) use the Internet at least occasionally, compared with less than one in ten (9%) in West Africa.

South African mobile users, however, now spend 8.1 hours on the mobile internet every week. The demand for WiFi zones is expected to grow as well, as 26% of mobile phone users are predicted to use them in 2014, up from 14% this year.

How do South Africans Use their phones?

As in other countries, mobile phones are being used in a range of ways aside from talking. South Africa ranks fifth in the world for mobile data usage, ahead of the United States, which ranks seventh.

While Facebook, WhatsApp and MXit were voted as the three favourite apps of 2013, people are doing more than just liking statuses and chatting on their phones. The camera is by far the most used function — some 73% of cellphone users use their phones to take photos, with 51% using it to listen to FM Radio, and 49% using it to listen to their own music. Browsing the web takes fourth place, and some 45% of South Africans access Facebook on their phones.

The chat and social apps are seriously gaining ground in the country — and none more so than WhatsApp. The little green instant messenger is now used by more than half of South African mobile users (usage doubled in the past 18 months, from 26% to 53%) although Skype and Twitter are also expected to continue to grow rapidly. Surprisingly, this doesn’t necessarily mean the end of other text-based communication — SMS text messaging is used by almost 4.2 times more people than e-mail and more than two-thirds (69%) of consumers prefer sending texts to calling.

The audio calls are continuing to be steadily chomped away at by data. The 19-24 age group is ditching the dialer and opting to instead spend their cash on data. Now 56% of this group’s mobile bill goes towards phone calls, a 10% drop from last year, while spending on data has grown from 17% to 24%. Voice spend has dropped from 73% of South Africans’ mobile budget to 65%, while data has increased from 12% to 16%. To put that in perspective, data accounted for just 8% of mobile spend in early 2010, while voice dominated with 77%.

The majority (60%) of South African mobile users said they are aware of mobile banking services offered by banks, but only 21 percent say they use such services. A much larger number of those aware of the services said they would never use them, suggesting banks might need to invest in communicating the benefits and security of mobile banking.

Attitudes toward mobile networks

According to the Mobile Consumer in SA 2014 and the Mobile Internet in SA 2014 reports, the levels of network loyalty are really high among the Africans. 95 percent of subscribers have been with their carrier for an average of 4.2 years, and 81 percent said they’d recommend their network providers to friends and family, reinforcing the importance of word-of-mouth and reputation in the industry.

While pre-paid plans still make up between 82 and 85 percent of the market, 25 percent of subscribers say they could switch from pre-paid to contract packages within the next year.

Also, the networking quality is a key decision factor when it comes to choose a provider. More than a quarter (27%) said they left their previous provider due to poor network quality.

The biggest network provider company is Nokia, even though the Finnish manufacturer has taken a hit in the last 12 months, dropping from owning half of the market last year to 44% in 2013. BlackBerry is now the second most popular phone brand overall (feature and smartphones) in the country, rising from 18% to 23% marketshare. Also Samsung grew its marketshare slightly, from 18% in 2012 to 19% in 2013.