Vodacom continues to enjoy good growth in its African operations outside South Africa and has witnessed substantial growth in revenue from data as an increasing number of its subscribers move to smartphones or purchase dongles or other mobile broadband devices.
This has helped offset a 0,8% decline in average revenue per user (Arpu) in the South African market in the financial quarter ended 30 June 2013 as price competition took a toll and as wholesale inter-network call rates came down. Service revenues in South Africa fell by 0,2% over a year ago, and by 1,8% quarter on quarter.
Vodacom increased its active subscriber base by 5,3% to 51,5m. Revenue in its South African operations increased by 3,9% from the previous quarter, reaching R14,5bn on the back of increased handset sales, offsetting the decline in service revenue.
In the past year, Vodacom has added 1,3m smartphones to its South African network, bringing the total number to 6,3m. At the same time, average monthly data use by South African customers increased by 75% to 216MB.
Group revenue was up by 3% to R17,5bn for the quarter. This excluded the sale of Gateway Carrier Services and the impact of foreign exchange movements.
Service revenue for the group was flat at R14,6bn, up by 2,3% on a normalised basis from the previous quarter. Meanwhile, service revenue from its international operations was up by 14,1%.
Group data revenue grew by 28,2%, with active data customers increasing by 23,3% to 19,4m. Vodacom attributes this, in part, to its drive to increase smartphone penetration across its operations. At the same time, group voice traffic leapt by 28,3%.
CEO Shameel Joosub says Vodacom continues to “perform well”.
“By focusing on value offerings that allow people to talk for longer, we’ve grown prepaid minutes of use by 21% in South Africa”.
Joosub says data and the International operations remain “key parts of the growth story”.
“Data revenue in South Africa increased by 21,8% and now accounts for 21,3% of service revenue, up from 17,5% a year ago.”
According to Joosub, hardware sales — primarily smartphones and tablets — totalled R2,7bn during the quarter.
“The international operations added just under 3,3m customers over the last 12 months,” Joosub adds. Service revenue increased by 14,1%. — (c) 2013 NewsCentral Media
