Several of South Africa's major mobile networks plan to expand their 5G coverage and upgrade backup power systems to better cope with load-shedding in 2023. Rotational power outages were an immense challenge for mobile network operators in 2022.

World Wide Worx and Mastercard's online retail study revealed that South Africa reached R55 billion in 2022, a 35% year-on-year increase. Online sales growth was driven by a boom in demand for home deliveries which started during the extended lockdowns.

Towards the end of 2022, the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (Icasa) issued several notices about proposed changes to radio frequency assignments.

According to several of the country’s biggest fibre network operators (FNOs), network expansions, price cuts, and speed upgrades are in the pipeline for home fibre users in 2023.

Qualcomm and Iridium entered into an agreement to bring satellite-based connectivity to next-generation premium Android smartphones; Garmin looks forward to collaborating with support for emergency messaging.