Telecommunications infrastructure in South Africa provides modern and efficient service to urban areas, including cellular and internet services. The Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA) is the watchdog of the telecommunications in the country. In 1997, Telkom, the South African telecommunications parastatal, was partly privatised and entered into a strategic equity partnership with a consortium of two companies, including SBC, a U.S. telecommunications company. In exchange for exclusivity (a monopoly) to provide certain services for 5 years, Telkom assumed an obligation to facilitate network modernisation and expansion into the unserved areas. A Second Network Operator was to be licensed to compete with Telkom across its spectrum of services in 2002, although this license was only officially handed over in late 2005 and has recently begun operating under the name, Neotel. South Africa has four licensed mobile operators: MTN, Vodacom (majority owned by the UK’s Vodafone), Cell C (75% owned by Saudi Oger, an international telecommunications holdings firm), and 8ta, a subsidiary of Telkom. In 2012, mobile penetration was estimated at more than 10%, one of the highest rates in the world. In 2019, mobile penetration reached 95%. Mobile market in South Africa is controlled by four cellular providers: Vodacom, MTN, Cell C, Telkom (Mobile), which is run by Telkom, With Vodacom and MTN controlling the 75% of the market share, ICASA considers that mobile brand services are highly concentrated in the country. a new provider, Rain launched in 2018 providing majority data only services to consumers. History The first use of telecommunication in the Republic of South Africa was a single line telegraph connecting Cape Town and Simonstown. The first telegraph was launched on 2 December 1859, and the Cape of Good Hope Telegraph Company opened the line in April 1860. At about the time of the Bell Telephone Company's development of the telephone industry post-1876, early undersea telegraph links were introduced, first connecting Durban and Europe, and later connecting the country to the rest of the world. In 1879, the first submarine cable system that connected South Africa with Europe started to work, through the East Coast cable of the South African Telegraph Company, a single channel cable. In 1889, the first West Coast submarine cable from Cape Town to Europe was installed. The 1584 nm cable provided by CS Scotia was linked with West African Telegraph Companies' cables. Telcon carried out the links. Another cable to Cape