Aweh bets on family offerings to crack MVNO market

Aweh bets on family offerings to crack MVNO market

Nokuthula Mkhwane, MD of Aweh Mobile. Aweh Mobile has entered South Africa’s mobile market as the latest mobile virtual network operator (MVNO), targeting households with a service that lets them manage multiple SIMs through a single account. The operator, which officially launched yesterday, is positioning its offering around the way families share mobile connectivity, rather…

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Capitec’s fintech income surges amid MVNO gains

Capitec’s fintech income surges amid MVNO gains

Capitec continued to grow its customer base, as active clients increased to 26.6 million. (Image supplied) Capitec’s fintech operations, comprising value-added services (VAS) and its mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) Capitec Connect, continued to gain momentum in the six months to 31 August, with net income from the businesses rising 30% to R2.7 billion. The…

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Absa’s silence and the banking MVNO move no one has tried

Absa’s silence and the banking MVNO move no one has tried

South Africa has four banking MVNOs (Capitec Connect, FNB Connect, Standard Bank Connect and Nedbank Connect), and they’re all essentially running the exact same playbook. The logic is simple enough: use a mobile product to deepen the banking relationship, gather behavioural data between transactions and create sticky switching costs as a customer’s financial life grows….

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Absa goes quiet on its MVNO plans

Absa goes quiet on its MVNO plans

Absa managing executive Nick Nkosi Eight months after telling TechCentral it was readying the launch of a mobile virtual network operator, Absa is giving very little away about how those plans are progressing – or when South Africans can expect to see an Absa-branded Sim card. Last October, Nick Nkosi, Absa’s managing executive for transactional…

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The MVNO trap deepens as the battle moves to data

The MVNO trap deepens as the battle moves to data

South Africa’s banking MVNOs were conceived as a defensive weapon. Banks watched mobile operators build payments platforms, accumulate transaction data and push into financial services from the connectivity side. The mobile virtual network operator was the answer: own the mobile relationship, generate behavioural data between transactions and build switching costs that make the customer harder…

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The trap inside South Africa’s banking MVNO boom

The trap inside South Africa’s banking MVNO boom

Every South African bank that has launched a mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) – Capitec, FNB, Standard Bank, Nedbank and soon Absa – has built its mobile business on phone numbers it does not control. The international mobile subscriber identity (IMSI) embedded in every Sim card belongs to the host network. The phone number –…

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Capitec blows up MVNO pricing with free on-net calls

Capitec blows up MVNO pricing with free on-net calls

Capitec CEO Graham Lee Capitec Bank has scrapped call charges between its own Capitec Connect Sim cards in a sharp competitive move by South Africa’s largest mobile virtual network operator. CEO Graham Lee announced the change at the group’s full-year results presentation in Stellenbosch on Wednesday, saying calls between any two Capitec Connect numbers are…

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Nedbank MVNO ambitions reach beyond South Africa’s borders

Nedbank MVNO ambitions reach beyond South Africa’s borders

Nedbank’s Eugene Liebenberg Nedbank Connect, Nedbank’s recently launched mobile virtual network operator (MVNO), is taking a slow and steady approach to entering the South African market, but its ambitions are broader, with other markets in Africa firmly in its sights. Eugene Liebenberg, head of digital products at Nedbank, said in an interview with TechCentral that…

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Absa is planning to launch an MVNO

Absa is planning to launch an MVNO

Absa’s Nick Nkosi Banking group Absa is preparing to launch a mobile virtual network operator, making it the last of South Africa’s largest banks to enter the MVNO market. Nick Nkosi, managing executive for transactional and deposits at Absa Group, told TechCentral in an exclusive interview on Friday that the bank has been conducting research…

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