According to PwC’s 2025 Customer Experience Survey, more than half (52%) of consumers have abandoned a brand due to a bad experience with its products or services, and nearly a third (29%) have done so because of poor customer experience, either online or in-person.

These numbers are especially relevant to South Africa’s telecommunications industry, which scores very poorly in terms of customer satisfaction and perception.

In fact, the telecoms industry has some of the lowest customer sentiment scores when compared with other major industries.

The findings of another PwC report – South African Telecommunications Sentiment Index – show that telecoms customers frequently encounter obstacles when trying to cancel services, query bills, or activate SIMs.

Traditional support channels, like call centres and physical branches, often fail to meet customer expectations and long wait times and inconsistent service are driving customers to churn.

And when they go online, digital experiences are also leaving much to be desired, adding to customer frustration and further driving cancellation intent.

So what can telcos do?

For too long, telcos have treated customer experience as a technology problem. Deploying a new CRM platform, chatbot, or mobile app on top of a fragmented and slow customer journey. But when you try to layer digital tools over legacy processes that were never designed for speed or simplicity, the results are typically disappointing. Research shows that the harder customers have to work, the more likely those customers are to leave.

Today, consumers are less focused on price and quality and more focused on how businesses deliver value on top of the basics. For modern telcos, one of the most effective ways to provide this value is by giving customers more control. Digital self-service offerings are digital platforms that empower customers to manage their accounts, services, and issues independently, without needing to contact call centres or visit stores.

Modern consumers benefit from being able to access account information and troubleshoot problems quickly.

These self-service platforms also let customers resolve issues on their own schedule, reducing frustration, building loyalty, and lowering churn.

And the benefits of digital self-service extend beyond the customer. For telco businesses, empowering customers to handle routine tasks on their own reduces the burden on call centres and in-store staff.

This allows telcos to reduce operational costs by reallocating human resources to complex or high-value interactions.

In addition, self-service portals offer strategic value for telecom brands by making it easier for customers to discover and purchase add-ons or upgrades, driving upsell and cross-sell opportunities. Because every interaction on a self-service platform generates data on customer behaviour and preferences, these insights can help telcos personalise offerings, anticipate issues, and proactively engage customers.

There is also a direct correlation between self-service maturity and customer lifetime value, particularly in the enterprise segment. Business customers expect visibility, control, and fast turnaround times.

Providers that offer robust self-service portals and APIs become easier to do business with, which translates into longer relationships and higher revenue.

Here, it’s important to highlight that“digital-first” does not mean “digital-only”. Telcos must recognise that customers want to be able to move fluidly between channels. A user might start on a mobile app, escalate to live chat, and finish with an agent on the phone.

If these channels are not tightly integrated, the experience quickly breaks down. True omnichannel engagement ensures context follows the customer, eliminating repetition and frustration.

In a market where connectivity alone is no longer a differentiator, experience becomes the product. Digital self-service is not about encouraging customers to forgo human support.

It’s about giving them choice, speed, and transparency and, in doing so, creating experiences that customers actively choose, even when competitors are only a click away.

Historically, Cell C has been the primary enabler of MVNOs in this country, leveraging its own spectrum but also using the physical network infrastructure of MTN and Vodacom through roaming agreements.

But as the MVNO market expands, other mobile network operators (MNOs) like MTN, Vodacom and Telkom have also entered this space, debuting their own MVNO enablement platforms and actively seeking more brands to partner up with.

This makes sense when you consider that the local MVNO market, which had a subscriber base of 3.8 million in 2024, according to a report from Africa Analysis, is expected to more than triple, reaching between 12.3 million and 15.9 million, by 2030.

For MNOs and Mobile Virtual Network Enablers (MVNEs) looking to capitalise on this massive market opportunity, it makes sense to offer potential MVNO partners a plug-and-play package that provides everything needed to launch a mobile network without building the technology from scratch.

Introducing MVNO-in-a-box

An “MVNO-in-a-box” is a pre-packaged, ready-to-deploy solution that brings together all the technology, tools, and operational components needed for a business to start and run an MVNO quickly and cost-effectively.

It’s essentially a turnkey MVNO platform, designed to simplify and speed up market entry.

When you consider that it can take up to two years to launch a traditional MVNO, a plug and play offering that can reduce this to a few months is essential for MNOs and MVNEs looking to sign and activate brands in less time..

So, what’s in the box?

A typical MVNO-in-a-box offering will bundle together all the core capabilities an operator needs, from OSS/BSS systems and integration frameworks to SIM provisioning interfaces and optional value-added services, and make everything available via a simple, self-service portal.

In an ideal scenario, a business wanting to launch an MVNO will be able to visit a web portal, plug in all the necessary details and their mobile network will be live the next day.

This approach makes strong strategic and commercial sense for both MNOs and MVNEs, especially in a market where MVNO competition is increasing. Below are three key benefits of MVNO-in-a-box.

Faster time-to-market

In a competitive landscape, speed is everything. Quite simply, more MVNO launches mean more wholesale revenue for MNOs and more platform fees for MVNEs.

Reduced operational burden for MNOs and MVNEs

Supporting MVNOs normally requires ongoing engineering work – think bespoke integrations, custom billing setups and system testing and provisioning.

With a plug-and-play MVNO platform, everything is standardised so MNOs and MVNEs no longer need to reinvent the wheel every time they onboard a new MVNO.

Lower setup costs, minimised risk

Traditionally, setting up an MVNO can be expensive for everyone involved. By offering things like prebuilt OSS/BSS, reusable APIs and automated provisioning, MVNO-in-a-box dramatically lowers the total cost per MVNO partner.

Additionally, MVNO-in-a-box offerings use proven, repeatable modules, which reduces risk. This makes it more viable for smaller, niche players to enter the market profitably.

An MVNO-in-a-box solution frees up new MVNOs so they don’t have to focus on backend complexity and can rather spend time ​​thinking about how to build their brand and grow their business.

At VAS-X, we want to help operators and brands to launch and run MVNO services without building the full stack themselves.

The goal is to help new entrants monetise connectivity as part of broader digital offerings as quickly and seamlessly as possible.

As part of this evolution, the industry’s big players are moving beyond being providers of voice and data services to become full-fledged technology companies.

What Safaricom did with M-Pesa is one of the clearest examples of a telco transforming into a true ‘techco’. For this telco, the move was driven almost entirely by the success of its mobile money platform, M-Pesa.

M-Pesa started out as a simple tool for sending and receiving cash but has since grown into a fully fledged fintech ecosystem that is central to Kenya’s economy.

In fact, a 2024 GSMA report, suggests that the broader mobile-money ecosystem increased Kenya’s GDP by up to 8.6 % in 2023 compared to what it would have been without it.

For Safaricom, this evolution shows how a telco can become a technology company by solving real-world problems at scale but still with connectivity as the foundation of its offering.

Unfortunately, legacy systems can prevent telcos from evolving into tech-driven companies because they are rigid, expensive to maintain and can’t support the speed and flexibility needed to provide modern digital services.

For example, many operators still rely on outdated OSS/BSS stacks that make it difficult to get a single view of the customer or automate even basic processes.

Legacy OSS/BSS solutions were built for simple use cases – SMS, voice, data – and can’t really handle the variety of services that define the modern ‘techco’.

These monolithic systems are so complex that trying to introduce even a single change requires months of work, redesigns and change requests. Not only does this slow down operations, but it can also hinder flexibility and dramatically drive up costs. Also, remember that legacy systems aren’t API-enabled.

This means that they are very siloed, which limits communication between platforms and makes expanding into new product areas incredibly complex.

To unlock the ‘techco’ vision and expand the breadth of products and services under a single telco brand, operators need to find the right technology partners to help them innovate at the speed the market now demands.

This transition is more than just an architectural shift, it’s about providing the operational foundations needed for telcos to become ‘techcos’.

In the case of the OSS/BSS solutions mentioned above, this entails leveraging API-first architecture so that telcos can seamlessly partner with fintech providers, content platforms, IoT ecosystems, and enterprise technology vendors.

The right technology partner can help operators deliver convergent billing, which allows telcos to invoice diverse service types in a single customer bill, and modular, cloud-native design so that operators can scale specific components independently.

And where telcos want to venture into the mobile money space, the right technology partner will help them to access real-time transaction processing, which is essential in a market where sub-second response times can have a negative impact on usability.

Across the telecommunications industry, competition has intensified dramatically as more and more players enter the market and as regulators push prices down.

This trend reduces margins for operators and has also ended the era when telcos could rely on guaranteed, high-profit returns.

As a result, the industry has had to find creative ways to tap into new revenue streams.

At VAS-X, we have spent over two decades helping operators across Africa adapt and evolve in response to changes in the market.

For telcos looking to expand their offerings and become ‘techcos’, VAS-X can help to replace legacy systems that are stalling innovation and make it possible to launch and monetise a wide range of new digital services.

While these businesses acknowledge the downside of sticking with legacy infrastructure, they are often fearful (and rightly so) of the complexity, cost, and potential disruption that can come with upgrading their existing tech.

This is particularly true for Business Support Systems (BSS). A BSS manages critical revenue-related functions, from billing and revenue management to CRM and order fulfilment, and forms the backbone of how telcos interact with customers.

Telcos are often tentative about a BSS overhaul because they’ve already made significant investments in legacy technology and can’t justify the cost of an upgrade.

Additionally, these systems are such a key component of day-to-day operations, operators are understandably cautious about making changes to something that has traditionally worked well enough and where such a change would introduce significant operational risk.

A BSS upgrade is a significant project, something akin to a bank replacing its entire network of ATMs. It’s a project that touches every part of the business, impacts millions of customers, and requires meticulous planning and execution.

But legacy BSS platforms are typically monolithic, complex and costly to maintain, leaving telcos stuck between the risk of disruption and the need to modernise.

So, how do you know when it’s time to move to a modern BSS?

If your competitors are gaining traction with the frequent launch of new products and you’re losing market share, it might be time to modernise your BSS.

If it takes you months to update your processes in response to market or regulatory changes, and others are moving at a much faster pace, your business support systems need a refresh.

If your customer satisfaction scores are down, if you’re struggling with billing inaccuracies and high maintenance costs, modernising your BSS is the right move.

BSS migration mastery

The dilemma is clear: replacing or upgrading a system is a big step but continuing to rely on increasingly outdated technology threatens innovation, competitiveness and future growth.

For telcos wanting to replace a legacy BSS without the risk, taking a modular or phased approach is the best strategy.

Rather than upgrading everything at the same time, savvy telcos can opt to swap out specific services, whether it’s just a CRM component or invoicing component, maybe the onboarding component and then scale things up at their own pace.

With this approach, old and new systems can run in parallel, with the legacy system continuing to handle live operations, while the new system is tested and validated.

It’s also possible to run a phased customer migration, so that operators can refine processes and resolve issues before affecting their entire customer base.

While there’s no doubt that a BSS upgrade is a big project, the risks of delaying an upgrade far outweigh the challenges of migration. Especially if you migrate in stages.

When adopting a phased approach, operators can modernise with lower risk, and guaranteed continuity of service and enjoy the benefits of modern platforms – from quick product launches and better operational efficiency to improved customer experience.

Launched in 2013, the initiative seeks to connect government institutions, schools, healthcare facilities, and underserved communities to fast and reliable internet.

As part of the programme, the government aims to deliver full broadband coverage by 2030, ensuring that every South African, regardless of location, can participate in the digital economy.

But as the government works on longer-term broadband infrastructure projects, like SA Connect, there is a significant opportunity for ISPs to fill these connectivity gaps.

Introducing the hybrid carriers

In the past, a company might specialise in offering fibre networks, and that’s the only field they played in. But this has changed.

To compete, you need to expand your offerings. This trend is driving the rise of hybrid carriers; service providers that find other ways to connect communities.

Hybrid carriers and ISPs are companies that combine multiple connectivity technologies or service models to deliver internet access more efficiently and affordably, especially in areas where a single approach falls short.

These hybrid players are usually smaller than the more traditional telcos, and they’re able to succeed by servicing the more isolated and underserved communities.

They’re typically more agile and can deploy modern connectivity solutions at pace. This agility also allows them to experiment with innovative service models that might be unfavourable to larger, more traditional providers.

Fibre companies like those mentioned above face multiple obstacles in deploying new infrastructure to remote township communities, such as obtaining demand and intent confirmation and securing municipal approval. The time and cost associated with digging or erecting fibre lines is another barrier.

Couple this with the reality that many of these communities are unbanked and have constrained disposable income, which limits their ability to sign on for debit payments and what they can afford to spend on data or subscriptions.

Additionally, smaller user bases and lower ARPU (average revenue per user) mean that the financial return on these infrastructure investments is typically far lower.

The business case for Community Wifi 

Underserved South African communities alone represent R26 billion in annual spending power, much of which remains disconnected from digital commerce and services.

Across these underserved areas, community Wifi has the potential to empower people by allowing them to connect to the Internet.

In action, a Community Wifi model will see subscribers buying prepaid vouchers that they can use to get online at different Wifi hotspots across their community, be it their local supermarket or the cafè down the road.

For a small fee of around R5 or R10, community members can access the Internet for a day as they move about connecting to different hotspots across their community.

For a fibre operator, offering this additional service makes good business sense because the average person might not be able to afford their fibre services, but can afford to connect for a small daily fee.

Now, this single fibre point might be servicing a few hundred people, and that small daily fee equates to a positive return on investment. In this way, they’re able to make money where fibre isn’t a good fit, while also driving digital inclusion because the solution is more affordable.

In addition to fixed and hotspot coverage, hybrid carriers also represent the next frontier in MVNO growth, with many ISPs leveraging their existing presence in underserved communities to roll out mobile services.

This omni-service approach ensures that providers are able to service their customers at home, at their destination and anywhere in between.

While expanding your service offerings opens up new business opportunities, it can also increase billing complexity. Many OSS (Operational Support System) / BSS (Business Support System) vendors offer billing software that caters to a specific type of billing, but few are equipped to meet the complex and evolving needs of hybrid carriers.

To scale effectively, hybrid telcos need flexible, integrated billing systems that can support their growing needs and cater to multiple disparate services, like mobile (MVNO), fixed line, fixed wireless and fibre, as well as the voucher inventory, distribution and redemption requirements associated with community WiFi or prepaid mobile.

Across our portfolio of products and services, VAS-X remains committed to supporting providers looking to bridge the digital divide with capable and cost effective solutions.