MTN reports decline in subscriber numbers
Mobile operator MTN on Tuesday reported a marginal decline in South African subscribers in a quarterly update for the period ended September 2017.
Locally, while the average revenue per user improved to R88.12, from R85.24 in the previous quarter, subscriber numbers decreased by 1.0% to 30.9 million, impacted by a 1.3% decline in the prepaid segment mainly the result of higher churn following the withdrawal of a Q2 2017 promotion, it said.
Postpaid subscriber numbers were stable, MTN said.
Overall group subscribers also declined 0.7% to 230 million, from 231.8 million before, the group said.
MTN said its local operation recorded organic service revenue growth of 5.2%. Data and digital services revenue which increased by 21% and 27.7% respectively, were supported by a strong prepaid performance as well as the continued recovery of the postpaid consumer segment.
“The postpaid consumer segment recorded positive net additions in quarter, demonstrating a continued encouraging recovery in this segment. This was supported by improvements made in customer value management (CVM), increased channel footprint and enhanced churn management.
“The growth in consumer net additions was partly offset by the disconnection of subscribers through certain on-biller partnerships and churn in the enterprise segment,” MTN said.
Additional highlights:
- Group subscribers declined quarter-on-quarter (QoQ) to 230.2 million, largely driven by lower reported subscribers in Nigeria as we continue to refine our active subscriber definitions as well as the disconnection of approximately 750,000 subscribers in Uganda as a result of regulatory SIM registration requirements.
- Active MTN Mobile Money customers increased QoQ by 10.6% to 19.8 million.
- Voice traffic (billable minutes) increased by 9% and data traffic continued to grow by some 125% year-on-year (YoY).
- On a reported basis group total revenue and group service revenue reduced by 13.4% and 14.0% respectively largely due to exchange rate movements.
- On a constant currency basis group total revenue increased by 6.9%, with group service revenue up 7.4%.
- Data revenue increased by 31.4% and digital revenue was up 19.6%.
- MTN South Africa’s organic service revenue increased by 5.2%.
- MTN Nigeria reported an 11.2% increase in total revenue supported by data revenue growth of 72.1%.
- MTN Group year-to-date capital expenditure was R18 billion, up 1.1%.
MTN Group president and chief executive officer, Rob Shuter, said: “The group continued to make steady progress in implementing our BRIGHT strategy with a strong focus on operational execution across the group. Our key growth drivers of data and digital services performed well with revenue growth of 31.4% and 19.6% respectively.
“In the quarter, we have accelerated our network investment programme, rolling out 1,641 3G and 2,102 4G sites (including co-located sites), supporting the demand for data services.”
He said in line with the group’s strategic initiative to drive a dual-data strategy, MTN is working on reducing the out-of-bundle data pricing across its markets to stimulate usage from inactive and low usage customers.
“This is expected to have a short-term impact on data revenue growth but we anticipate elasticity in the mass and high-value segments will continue to drive data revenue growth in the medium term.”
MTN said it remains on track to meet its financial year 2017 guidance despite continued challenging economic growth across our markets.
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