South African companies MTN and Vodacom are two of the biggest mobile companies in Africa. MTN operates in 17 countries in Africa and Vodacom operates in eight.

Together they reported more than 450-million customers at the end of 2023. About 23% of Vodacom’s 186-million customers are in South Africa, but more than 80% of MTN’s 294.8-million subscribers are in other African countries.

MTN Nigeria generated a larger share of MTN’s service revenue in 2023 than South Africa.

As of 2022, only about 15% of people in Sub-Saharan Africa live in areas that are not covered by mobile networks, and they are mainly remote or rural.