The average volume of data consumed per smartphone on Vodacom’s network in South Africa jumped by 55,4% to 336MB/month year-on-year in the six-month period ended 30 September 2014.
The mobile telecommunications group revealed the numbers alongside its interim financial results, which were published on Monday.
The numbers show that average monthly usage on tablets in South Africa increased by 28,9% to 879MB, while the number of active smartphones and tablets on the network increased by 22,3% to 8,6m. This was helped by the launch of cheap smartphones and tablets, including the Vodacom Kicka, a sub-R600 Android smartphone, and the Vodacom Smart Tab 3G, a sub-R1 000 Android tablet.
Vodacom did not reveal the average effective price per megabyte, but said this number has fallen by 30,4% in the past 12 months.
Vodacom CEO Shameel Joosub said in a conference call on Monday that the company’s 3G network now covers 94% of South Africa’s population, while its 4G/LTE network covers 30% of the population.
In the interim period, data revenue grew by 21,6% to R6,2bn. Data now makes up 26,4% of revenue, from 21,5% a year ago.
Active data customers, excluding machine-to-machine Sims, grew by 17,4% to 16,7m.
“More than half of our customer base now actively uses data and data traffic increased 75,2% in comparison to last year,” Vodacom said.
The operator spent R4,1bn on network expansion in South Africa in the six-month period, up by more than a third over last year.
It doubled the number of 4G/LTE sites to nearly 2 000 and added 745 3G sites. — © 2014 NewsCentral Media
