Vodacom intends increasing group capital expenditure by 20% in the financial year ended March 2015. It proposes increasing its capex investment from R10,8bn in 2014 to R13bn this year.

However, it has warned that the planned investment could be affected negatively and “will be informed by the final outcome of the mobile termination rate process”, it says in notes alongside its 2014 annual results, published on Monday.

Communications regulator Icasa has begun a process to formulate new regulations to govern mobile termination rates after the high court in Johannesburg found that the authority’s previous set of regulations, introduced earlier this year, were invalid and unlawful.

According to the Vodacom, it invested R6,9bn in its South African network in the 2014 financial year, which included building more than a thousand new 3G sites. Its 3G network now covers 91,9% of the population, the company claims.

It invested a further R3,9bn in its international operations’ networks, growing the number of 2G sites by 25,5% and 3G sites by 53,4%.

The investments were needed, Vodacom says, to support strong demand. Across the group, there was a 27% increase in outgoing voice traffic, while data use leapt higher by 94%. Group active customers climbed by 13,8% to 57,5m, accounting for 7m net additions in the financial year.

Group revenue rose by 8,3%, while service revenue was up by 4,7%. Group data revenue rose by 32,7%.

Despite the heavy investment in network infrastructure, free cash flows grew by 8,6%. Margins, measured using group earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation, was a healthy 36,1%.