Big mobile win for Telkom

Telco group Telkom says it has seen a 21.6% jump in its mobile subscribers to 24 million – with its fibre business also showing significant growth, up 13.1% to 1.3 million homes passed.

In a trading update for the third quarter that ended 31 December 2024, Telkom recorded strong results in line with its mid-term guidance, noting that it is on track to achieve its medium-term objectives.

Revenue for the period was up marginally by 0.9% to just under R11 billion, while earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation grew 28% to R3 billion.

The revenue boost was driven by ongoing demand for data, higher prepaid recharges, and mobile data revenue growth of 10.8%.

It also saw ongoing migrations to fibre-related services, with fixed data revenue growing by 4.7%, and IT services revenue increasing by 3.2%.

“Overall mobile service revenue growth at 9.6% continued to gain value share, outperforming South African mobile market growth rates. For the nine months to date, group revenue advanced by 1.6% to R32 377 million,” it said.

Telkom said that its mobile business focused on acquiring customers, managing device and roaming costs, and expanding mobile network coverage to migrate traffic onto its network.

“These initiatives led to operational efficiency gains and higher profitability,” it said.

The mobile business surpassed all its new milestones. Subscribers hit a record 24 million, growing by 21.6%.

Mobile data users grew by 17.3% and now comprise 62.3% of total mobile subscribers.

The pre-paid segment grew strongly by 25.0% to 21.0 million subscribers, but the average revenue per user (ARPU) was lower at R61 (Q3 FY2024: R66).

Telkom said the lower ARPU was due to non-metro regions that attract lower ARPUs, but increased volumes.

The post-paid subscriber base was stable at 3.0 million with an improved ARPU of R185 (Q3 FY2024: R182).

Blended ARPU was lower at R79 (Q3 FY2024: R86).

“The post-paid segment is starting to show recovery, stimulated by several factors, including but not limited to, portfolio rebalancing with regards to price plan device alignment, stringent credit vetting and retention measures,” it said.

The fibre business also saw big gains. The fibre side saw an additional 100,115 homes connected over the period, up by a strong 17.6%.

“We saw continued substantial growth in data consumption with mobile and fixed traffic growing by 22.2% and 23.7%, respectively, y-o-y.

“Information technology service revenue, along with fibre data revenue for our ICT business also grew pleasingly. Overall contribution by mobile data and fibre-related services towards total revenue continued to advance in line with our strategy,” it said.