Telkom is taking market share from its rivals as its focus on data-led propositions as opposed to legacy voice services pays dividends, Attila Vitai, CEO of the company’s consumer, mobile and small business segment, has said.

Speaking to journalists on Friday afternoon, Vitai said Christmas sales were up sharply. He said Telkom’s retail stores are also much busier than those of rivals Vodacom, MTN and Cell C.

Thought he declined to provide subscriber numbers ahead of the publication of Telkom’s full-year financial results in May, Vitai said the company has grown its average revenue per user and its market share. Though it hasn’t yet broken the 10% barrier, it has made meaningful progress towards that target, he said.

“Customer satisfaction is up sharply in the last two years and we are increasingly being seen by the youth segment as the preferred operator out of the four (mobile providers).”

He said a “relentless focus” on data is winning it new customers. “We don’t advertise voice, and we haven’t done so for some time.”

He claimed Telkom’s mobile network, including fixed-wireless services, now carries more data traffic than any of its rivals. “Our competitors have been selling megs to their customers; we sell gigs.”

This has been supported by the roll-out of new infrastructure, with a thousand new base stations added in the past 10 months to cope with “almost insatiable demand for data”.

He said the company’s data-led FreeMe plans have proved to be a hit among consumers, with the 2GB FreeMe plan the most popular post-paid plan it offers.

“Our numbers are no longer what you’d expect from a fourth operator,” Vitai said. “We are not in double digits in terms of market share of subscribers yet, but we are growing well.”