The MTN group has published its financial results for the quarter ending 31 March 2017, recording a\u00a0slight decline in subscribers but an overall increase in revenue.<\/p>\n
Group total revenue increased by 7.1%, with data revenues up 29.4% year-on-year. Data revenue contributed 20% to total revenue, said the company in a shareholder statement.
\nMTN South Africa also reported a solid performance with a 4,1% increase in service revenue.<\/p>\n
However, group subscribers declined 1.5% in the quarter as a result of traditional seasonality and due to restatements on subscriber numbers in Ghana, Rwanda, and Zambia,\u00a0it said.<\/p>\n
South African subscriber numbers dropped slightly, from\u00a030.76 million in Q4 2016 to 30.23 million in the latest quarter.<\/p>\n
Blended ARPU in South Africa also dropped from R92.54 to R90.88 quarter-on quarter.<\/p>\n
MTN\u00a0said that continued\u00a0network improvement continued across the Group, particularly in the Nigerian, South African and Iranian operations, supported by year-to-date capital expenditure at R4.6 billion.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn March 2017, we completed the evolution of the core senior management team. The new Group president and chief executive officer, chief financial officer, and chief operating officer are now in place and have settled in, swiftly adjusting to their respective roles while beginning a review of the business to see where further improvements can be made,\u201d said MTN.<\/p>\n
“The priorities for the South Africa business remain driving network quality, offering attractive value propositions and improving the customer experience. In the period we continued our network expansion with 515 LTE sites and 53 3G sites going live.”<\/p>\n