Capitec Connect — the bank’s mobile network launched in 2022 — has announced that all calls between Connect users are now completely free, in what the company describes as an industry-first for South Africa’s mobile market. The service runs on Cell C’s infrastructure and forms part of Capitec’s broader push beyond traditional banking into digital services and connectivity.
The move comes as Capitec Connect continues growing at a rapid pace. The mobile business now has 1.5 million active users, subscriber numbers jumped 67% over the past year, and its net income contribution more than doubled to R442 million. Data traffic on the network also tripled to 40.5 petabytes, suggesting customers are increasingly relying on Connect as a primary mobile service rather than just a secondary SIM card.
What makes the strategy interesting is that Capitec is no longer operating purely as a bank. It is steadily building a broader ecosystem around banking, mobile connectivity, device financing and digital services — effectively trying to position itself closer to a daily utility than just a financial institution. That matters in a country where access to affordable data, smartphones and digital payments increasingly determines how people work, communicate and manage money.
And there’s a longer-term competitive angle here too. South Africa’s major banks are increasingly pushing into adjacent industries like insurance, telecoms and e-commerce in an effort to keep customers inside their ecosystems for as much of daily life as possible. Free in-network calling may sound simple on the surface, but it also creates another reason for users to stay within the Capitec ecosystem — especially as mobile connectivity becomes more intertwined with banking itself.
