By Manuel Veiruapi Ruhapo
Mascom’s slip to second place in Botswana’s telecom market may look like a setback. In reality, it could be the strategic opportunity that forces the brand to abandon the outdated pursuit of market share and focus instead on deeper customer value.
Botswana’s business community often treats market share as the ultimate measure of success. So the recent news that Mascom has slipped to second place in mobile subscribers has been received with quiet concern.
But this shift may not signal decline. It may be the catalyst the company needs to rethink how telecom brands compete in a saturated market.
Botswana’s mobile penetration now stands at roughly 173 percent. In such an environment, the pursuit of new subscribers becomes a costly war of attrition. Companies compete through discounts, promotions and short term offers that erode margins without building meaningful loyalty.
The real question for Mascom is not how to regain the largest subscriber base. It is how to build the most valuable one.
MARKET SHARE MYTH
For decades telecom operators chased subscriber numbers as the primary indicator of success. Yet the economics of mature markets tell a different story.
The Pareto Principle suggests that around 80 percent of profit often comes from just 20 percent of customers. When a company aggressively pursues total market share, it often ends up investing heavily in lower value users while neglecting its most profitable segments.
This creates what marketers call customer portfolio dilution. The total number of subscribers rises, but the average value per customer declines.
At the same time, competing on price triggers a race to the bottom. Rivals respond to promotions with their own discounts, compressing margins across the entire industry. When network quality becomes similar between operators, price competition becomes the default strategy.
In that environment, scale alone stops being a competitive advantage.
VALUE OVER VOLUME
The smarter strategy is to treat customers not as a mass audience but as a portfolio.
A business executive in Phakalane who spends P1,000 per month on data has little in common with a university student in Mogoditshane searching for the cheapest bundle to stream football. Yet telecom promotions often treat both as identical targets.
Instead, brands should focus on Customer Lifetime Value relative to Customer Acquisition Cost. In simple terms, they should prioritise customers whose long term value greatly exceeds the cost of acquiring them.
This requires identifying the most valuable segments and building deeper loyalty around them.
For those customers, the winning strategy is not cheaper prices but stronger relationships. Priority support, tailored services and personalised offers create switching costs that are emotional as well as financial.
In that sense, customer experience becomes a strategic moat rather than a marketing slogan.
NETWORK MOMENTS
Telecom operators frequently highlight coverage maps to prove network strength. Yet coverage has become a baseline expectation rather than a differentiator.
What customers actually remember are moments.
The video call that does not drop. The football match that streams without buffering. The payment that goes through instantly when a card machine fails.
Marketers call these Category Entry Points. They are the real situations in which brand performance matters.
Instead of promoting national coverage statistics, telecom brands should focus on dominating these moments. That might mean ensuring flawless connectivity in high traffic micro locations such as Game City, airport departure lounges or the A1 during rush hour.
In other words, engineering excellence in specific everyday experiences rather than generic nationwide claims.
NEW COMPETITORS
Another strategic blind spot in telecom is the assumption that the main competitors are other telecom companies.
In reality, telecom operators are competing for a share of consumer spending and attention across multiple industries.
Every pula spent on pay television, streaming subscriptions or bank charges represents value that could flow through a telecom ecosystem instead.
Mascom’s MyZaka platform offers an example of how adjacent markets can be contested. Mobile money can challenge traditional banking costs while integrating financial services directly into the telecom relationship.
Likewise, data bundles increasingly compete with traditional media subscriptions as consumers shift from scheduled television to streaming platforms.
This approach transforms telecom from a utility into a digital gateway.
THE SECOND PLACE ADVANTAGE
History shows that second place can be a powerful strategic position.
In the 1960s Avis built one of the most famous advertising campaigns in history with the line: “We’re number two. We try harder.” The message reframed second place as a sign of hunger and customer focus rather than weakness.
Pepsi followed a similar playbook when competing with Coca Cola by positioning itself as the choice of a younger generation rather than trying to imitate the market leader.
Closer to home, Capitec Bank in South Africa entered a market dominated by established institutions but succeeded by focusing on simplicity and low cost banking for underserved customers.
In each case the challenger did not attempt to copy the leader. Instead it focused on a specific segment and became indispensable to it.
Mascom faces a similar opportunity.
BOTSWANA’S DIGITAL MOMENT
Botswana’s digital economy is expanding rapidly through initiatives such as Vision 2036 and Smart Botswana. As government services, commerce and communication move online, the role of telecom providers is evolving.
The most valuable customers in this environment are not necessarily those seeking the cheapest bundles. They are professionals, entrepreneurs and digitally active citizens whose daily lives depend on reliable connectivity.
For these users a telecom provider is not just a network operator. It is a digital infrastructure partner.
In a market where subscriber growth has largely plateaued, extracting greater value from existing relationships becomes the more sustainable strategy.
THE REAL METRIC
Ultimately the question is not which telecom operator has the most subscribers.
The real indicators of success are average revenue per user, share of wallet and the depth of customer relationships.
The brand that dominates Botswana’s telecom landscape over the next decade will not necessarily be the biggest. It will be the one most deeply embedded in the lives of its most valuable customers.
Mascom’s shift to second place may therefore represent less of a setback and more of a strategic turning point.