With an estimated several million people expected to arrive in South Africa for the global football event (over two million arrived in Germany in 2006, according to the World Cup organizing committee), it is likely that each of them will have a cell phone, either on roaming or will buy a pay-as-you-go plan when they land.

Most of these visitors will need to make calls, and the potential revenue for SA's mobile operators is massive, says Tim Courtenay, MD of ATIO Telecom Services division.

The networks in turn will need to plan for this sudden influx by upgrading their capacity at airports and stadiums, he adds. Most football stadiums can accommodate anything from 50,000 to 100,000 people, most of whom will want to make or receive a call, he says.

'We are anticipating that there is going to be quite a significant need in the market here to plan, implement and measure the quality of mobile networks from a subscriber's point of view,' he says. 'The country needs to take full advantage of the influx of people and the media exposure of something like a World Cup.'

Networks will need to ensure that their services are ready to handle the influx, and, especially, to see that their roaming capabilities are sufficiently robust, as most visitors are expected to be foreign tourists who will be roaming.