Cell C, South Africa's third-largest mobile operator, is looking beyond its own subscriber base for its next phase of growth, betting increasingly on the businesses that sell mobile services over its network.

The company's latest financial results, released on Friday, show that its wholesale and Mobile Virtual Network Operator (MVNO) business has become a key growth engine. Wholesale revenue climbed 20% year on year, and by the end of May 2026, 5.7 million subscribers were using services provided by other brands riding on Cell C's network. The company expects double-digit growth to continue in FY27.

The shift marks an evolution in Cell C's business beyond selling mobile services directly to consumers. The operator now uses its network to support other brands that want to offer mobile services without building their own infrastructure, making wholesale and MVNO partnerships central to its growth strategy. It is a significant pivot for a challenger that has long trailed Vodacom and MTN, the operators that dominate South Africa's mobile market, and it gives Cell C a revenue stream that does not depend on persuading consumers to sign up with the Cell C brand itself.

An MVNO allows a company to offer mobile services without operating its own radio network. Cell C supplies the underlying connectivity and infrastructure, while partner businesses market mobile services to their own customers. Its wholesale business provides the network capacity and services these partners need, enabling Cell C to earn revenue from companies that use its infrastructure to serve their own subscribers. In South Africa, many of those partners are banks and retailers adding mobile services to their existing customer relationships — Capitec, one of the country's largest banks, runs its Live Better Connect mobile service on Cell C's network.

Cell C said its wholesale business generated R1.8 billion ($111.8 million) in revenue in FY26 and accounted for 80% to 85% of South Africa's MVNO market.

The telco ended the year with 8.9 million direct subscribers, up 17.1% year on year, alongside the 5.7 million MVNO subscribers on its platform. Total revenue came in at R12.64 billion ($785.2 million), up 13.5%, while adjusted Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation and Amortisation (EBITDA) rose 16.9% to R2.4 billion ($147.8 million).

Cell C attributes its performance to an asset-light, partnership-led model, with wholesale and MVNO operations now a core part of the strategy. Group Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Jorge Mendes said the company had moved from recovery towards growth after completing its restructuring and listing on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) in November 2025. The listing capped a long climb back for an operator launched in 2001 as the country's first challenger to the then Vodacom–MTN duopoly, and which entered business rescue in 2023 under a heavy debt load before a recapitalisation left Blue Label Telecoms as its largest shareholder.

"Wholesale remained a standout performer and continues to validate our platform strategy, with sustained momentum in our MVNO business demonstrating the strength and scalability of Cell C's partner-led model," Mendes said in the results statement.

The figures underline how providing network services to MVNOs and other partners is becoming an increasingly important pillar of Cell C's growth strategy. The number of subscribers using MVNO services on its network rose 27.3% to 5.7 million, up from 4.5 million a year earlier — nearly four in ten of the SIMs on its platform once its 8.9 million direct customers are counted.

The company's consumer businesses also recorded growth. Prepaid revenue increased 9.7% to about R5.8 billion ($360.2 million), supported by a recovery in the customer base, with prepaid subscribers growing by 1.3 million during the year.

Postpaid service revenue gained 1.2% to R2.3 billion ($142.9 million), while average revenue per user rose to R242 ($15.03) from R225 ($13.98) after the company cleaned up its subscriber base. Data traffic surged 47% year on year, while voice traffic declined 4%.

Mendes noted that wholesale is central to the company's growth plans. "Wholesale remains a key growth driver, and we expect double-digit revenue growth to continue supported by the continued strong performance of our MVNO business," he stated.

Cell C enters FY27 with a stronger balance sheet after net debt fell to R2.02 billion ($125.5 million) from R5.7 billion ($353.4 million) a year earlier.

The telco expects overall revenue growth in the upper-single-digit range in FY27. It warned, however, that data rollover regulations due to take effect in January 2027, together with lower mobile termination rates, will put pressure on some revenue streams. The rollover rules will require operators to carry over customers' unused mobile data instead of letting it expire, while mobile termination rates — the fees operators pay one another to connect calls across networks — are set by the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA), which has reduced them over time.

Cell C also expects its postpaid business to improve following the integration of Comm Equipment Company (CEC), a telecommunications equipment and services business it acquired in August 2025. How those forces balance out — wholesale momentum and the expected postpaid lift from CEC against regulatory pressure on consumer revenue — will define FY27, the company's first full financial year as a listed company.