Incentives for handset upgrades

The group’s present policy is to pay incentives to service providers (SPs) for handset upgrades. These upgrades are only payable once the subscribers have completed a 21-month period with the SP since the initial commencement of their contract or previous upgrade and the eligible subscribers have exercised their rights to receive upgrades for new postpaid contracts with minimum terms. The value of the obligation may vary depending on the prevailing business rules at the time of the upgrade. The total number of eligible subscribers who had not yet exercised their right to upgrade at 31 December 2017 was 853 562 (2016: 572 235) and the estimated commitment in respect of these incentives amounts to R583 million (2016: R677 million).