Vodacom has reported an 8.7% jump in revenue for the quarter ended December 2015, as group customers grew to 65.3 million.<\/p>\n
Total active customers in South Africa increased 8.7% year-on-year to reach 34.1 million.<\/p>\n
For the quarter, the group posted R21.74 billion in revenue, R17.11 billion of which came from South African markets.<\/p>\n
Group data revenue increased 27.5% year-on-year to R5.52 million, representing 32.0% of service revenue.<\/p>\n
Contract customer additions in the quarter were negatively impacted by 75,000 disconnections by Altech Autopage (Pty) Limited, resulting in overall flat year-on-year growth in the contract\u00a0customer base.<\/p>\n
South Africa ARPU was stable as data revenue contribution increased and the voice revenue trend improved.<\/p>\n
“Customer demand for high speed mobile data is growing across our footprint, supporting a 27.5% increase in Group data revenue,” said group CEO, Shameel Joosub.<\/p>\n
“Active data customers increased 14.5% to 30.3 million as we increased sales of more affordable data devices in the quarter.”<\/p>\n
Joosub said that the group expects revenue growth to taper slightly into the last quarter of the financial year due to a stronger prior year comparative and a weaker outlook for the consumer in South Africa due to the drought and weaker exchange rate.<\/p>\n
On the capex side, capital expenditure in the quarter of R2.2 billion allowed Vodacom to expand LTE\/4G population coverage to 54% from 47% at 30 September 2015, while its 3G population\u00a0coverage now stands at 98.3%.<\/p>\n
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