MTN Group has reported a small climb in subscribers to 227.5 million in the first quarter of 2015, though the company’s South African operation has remained flat.<\/p>\n
In its quarterly update for the period ended 31 March 2015, MTN Group noted a 1.8% climb in subscribers across all of its 22 operations in Africa and the Middle East, with a much bigger jump in data revenue.<\/p>\n
“We continue to focus on our non-voice services which remain the key driver of the Group\u2019s revenue growth,” said MTN Group CEO, Safiso Dabengwa.<\/p>\n
“Data revenue increased by 16.7% as we expanded our 3G and LTE networks and stimulated the adoption of data-enabled devices and smartphones.”<\/p>\n
Overall data revenue now makes up 20.8% of total group revenue, the operator said.<\/p>\n
MTN South Africa recorded “muted” subscriber growth, ending the quarter with 28 million subscribers – the same rounded figure as the previous quarter.<\/p>\n
However, local subscribers were actually down a fraction of a percent (0.1%), with MTN SA having lost approximately 35,000 subscribers in the quarter.<\/p>\n
The post-paid and pre-paid subscriber base declined marginally recording 5.4 million and 22.6 million subscribers, respectively.<\/p>\n
“This was impacted by seasonality, some short-term challenges in the distribution channel and lower handset sales,” MTN said.<\/p>\n
“Despite this, the operation remained competitive increasing total minutes by more than 100% YoY. Total minutes declined 6.1% QoQ, impacted by seasonality.”<\/p>\n
Data revenue showed strong growth of 21.8% YoY and now contributes 27.7% to MTN SA’s total revenue.<\/p>\n
This was supported by “attractive data promotions”, including data bundles and segmented e-journey communications, MTN said.<\/p>\n
Data usage increased 62.6% YoY, while data users increased 18.1% YoY to 17.2 million. Blended ARPU, however, decreased by 4.8% to R87.<\/p>\n
MTN South Africa said it would continue to focus on cost “containment initiatives” and optimising its operating model.<\/p>\n
In its other African operations, MTN Nigeria increased its subscriber base by 2,1% to 61,1 million and maintained subscriber market share during the
\nquarter.<\/p>\n
Data revenue continued to grow strongly increasing by 17,0% YoY and now contributes 19,7% to total revenue, the group said.<\/p>\n
MTN Irancell, MTN Ghana, MTN Cameroon, MTN Uganda and MTN Ivory Coast all saw growth in subscriber numbers and a jump in data revenue.<\/p>\n
The only other countries to see a drop in subscribers, aside from South Africa, were MTN Sudan and MTN Syria.<\/p>\n
Looking at the Group’s Mobile Money platform, registered Mobile Money subscribers across the Group was up 23.2% to 27.4 million users across 14 operations.<\/p>\n
On Monday MTN and Vodacom announced a partnership that would allow money transfers between MTN’s Mobile Money and Vodacom’s M-pesa platforms in East African markets.<\/p>\n
In mid-morning trade on the JSE, MTN shares were trading slightly higher at R228.50, giving the company a market cap of just over R418 billion.<\/p>\n
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