Telecommunications

Telkom sees huge mobile growth in South Africa

Jonathan Hoyle

 ·3 Aug 2026

Telkom has seen its revenue continue to grow in 2026, driven by its mobile subscriber base of over 25 million people.

In a trading statement, the telecommunications giant reported revenue of over R11 billion for the quarter ended 30 June.

This is a 2.6% year-on-year increase from R10.8 billion, with the company largely attributing the growth to its mobile data and prepaid services.

The company saw a 9.1% increase in prepaid service revenue and an 11.4% increase in mobile data revenue, leading to group data revenue of approximately R6.9 billion.

The growth in Telkom’s mobile earnings meant that data revenue accounted for 62.4% of the group’s revenue, increasing from 58.8% year-on-year.

Telkom CEO, Serame Taukobong said the company had started the year with strong growth in its mobile services through Mobile and Openserve.

“Mobile and Openserve delivered solid revenue and EBITDA growth, as mobile service revenue re-accelerated compared to the preceding quarter,” he said.

The company’s EBITDA grew by 10.0%, resulting in Group EBITDA margin expanding by 1.8 ppts to 27.7% for the quarter.

EBITDA earnings reached roughly R3.1 billion, an increase from the previous year’s R2.8 billion.

It said that its drive for cost efficiencies resulted in total expenses declining by 1.9% for the quarter, mainly due to decreases in roaming costs in Mobile, maintenance costs, and impairment of receivables.

The company’s total capital expenditure (Capex) was R888 million, a 19.4% decrease from the previous financial year.

This expenditure was mainly focused on Telkom’s Mobile business and Openserve, its fibre network operator.

Telkom invested R421 million in its Mobile business, primarily to expand network capacity and upgrade its base stations.

Openserve saw R379 million invested in modernising and expanding its network, resulting in over 26,000 households being connected to the system in the last quarter.

Telkom Group financial statistics

Mobile services leads the way

In total, service revenue for Telkom’s Mobile business increased by 6.4%, supported by 9.1% growth in prepaid service revenue.

Telkom said the growth came from the execution of its regional strategy, which led to a large increase in revenue from non-metro regions.

The company’s mobile data traffic increased by approximately 19.6%, while data subscribers grew to 78.4% of the total base.

Prepaid subscribers also increased by 7.1% to 22.3 million, resulting in a strong EBITDA margin of 29.1% for Telkom’s mobile unit.

Openserve saw its revenue increase by 5.6% due to growth in fibre-related data revenue, while external revenue grew by 18.2%.

The fibre internet provider saw its connectivity rate improve to 53.9%, driven by the business’s connection-led strategy.

Telkom’s digital solutions subsidiary, BCX, saw its revenue decline by 10.9% in the last quarter, despite relative stability in its IT services revenue.

The bulk of the subsidiary’s losses came from its converged communications revenue, which declined 11.1% year-on-year.

It also saw its IT hardware and software revenue drop by approximately 30% to R424 million, from R607 million in the first quarter of the previous financial year.

This led BCX to report total revenue of approximately R2.6 billion, while EBITDA marginally improved by 2.6%.

“EBITDA increased due to improved margins in the IT services business, lower impairment of receivables and continued disciplined cost management,” Telkom said.

The company said BCX’s stability in IT services revenue is commendable, given that the IT sector remains constrained.

The decline in converged communications revenue was attributed to an ongoing managed migration to fibre-based platforms, which have caused pricing challenges.