Africa's biggest mobile phone operator Vodacom said on Monday it had secured the continent's first third generation (3G) licence and would focus on growing data services as part of its key growth strategy.
Facing stiff competition at home in South Africa, the firm vowed to aggressively defend its home market, adding that it was still interested in Nigeria, Africa's fastest growing cellular market, despite its surprise pull out last week.
Vodacom pulled out of a five-year contract to run Nigeria's second biggest cellphone operator Econet Wireless Nigeria (EWN) last week, citing concerns over corporate governance and lack of proper control of the company.
"We have secured a 3G licence in South Africa. By the end of the week, we shall have 3G working in limited areas," Vodacom CEO Alan Knott-Craig told a presentation.
"The most attractive thing about 3G is the high speed communication it provides and there's no doubt in my mind, we'll see significant growth in mobile data in South Africa in the next five years," Knott-Craig said.
Vodacom, which is 50 percent owned by South African fixed-line monopoly Telkom SA, earlier reported a rise of nearly 30 percent in subscribers to 11.217 million.
It remains the dominant cellular operator in South Africa, although market share in the year to March 31, 2004, ebbed to 54 percent from 57 percent.