Mobile coverage and smartphone penetration in South Africa 2015-2021
As of 2021, 99.9 percent of the population in South Africa had access to the 3G mobile network. 4G/LTE coverage increased significantly from 53 percent in 2015 to 97.7 percent in 2021. This trend was accompanied by rapidly growing smartphone penetration that more than doubled to 91.2 percent over the four year period from 2016 to 2019. In 2021, 7.5 percent of South Africa had 5G coverage.
