South Africa’s largest mobile network Vodacom is giving all its customers in the country 1GB of free data each to use for the day on Sunday to mark its 20 years in existence.

On 1 June 1994 Vodacom activated the phones of more than 36,000 subscribers. Since then, the company has grown to top 33 million customers in South Africa while also expanding to other African markets such as Tanzania, Mozambique and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Vodacom has over 20 million subscribers in African markets outside Africa.

“I’ve had the honour of being with Vodacom from the very beginning and the journey since the launch of commercial operations in 1994 has been remarkable,” said Shameel Joosub, Vodacom’s chief executive officer, in a press statement.

“We couldn’t have imagined in our wildest dreams how quickly the company would grow and how large the business would eventually become. To share our birthday with the nation is truly special, and we’re proud to have been able to play our own small part in the story of South Africa” said Joosub.

Vodacom’s move to unveil the 1GB offer; though, comes as South Africa’s mobile phone market has fast matured over the past 20 years with price wars characterising the space.

According to BuddeComm research, South Africa has a mobile penetration rate of over 150% for its 50 million population.

As a result, operators such as MTN and Vodacom have cut per minute call rates this year to well under R1, in a bid to win over subscribers.

The likes of MTN has also unveiled internet bundle promotions in the country that promise free access to social networks such as Twitter and WeChat.