Vodacom ready for lower mobile prices
Vodacom CEO, Pieter Uys says that strong competition and falling prices are not new, and that they are well-prepared to deal with increased pressure on voice and data margins.
“Strong competition and falling prices aren’t new – over the past year our average effective price per minute has fallen 14% and the price per MB on the same basis is down 18%,” said Uys.
“Our approach to dealing with this has a couple of legs – primarily looking for other growth areas, and at the same time managing our costs.”
- The key areas generating growth for Vodacom are data and Vodacom’s international businesses. “Together, they accounted for 87% of the growth in Group service revenue this year,” Uys pointed out.
- When it comes to managing costs Uys said that they are doing everything from optimizing their sponsorship spend to better-managing their energy costs.
Vodacom is also facing challenges from disruptive technologies like Voice over data (using VoIP technology), which may change the way people use their mobile phones.
Uys is not too concerned about the impact of these new technologies, explaining that their business plans are geared for most eventualities.
“Our business plans assume data prices going down, higher data volumes, new technologies, and new services,” said Uys.
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