MTN Mahala and MTN Zone a hit

Mobile operator MTN on Wednesday (6 March) said its results for the year ended December 2012 reflected solid progress, after the group reported a 10.9% rise in revenue to R135.11 billion.

The operator’s South African operations recorded a strong operational performance considering the step-up in competitive activity in the market. Total revenue grew by 7.1% to R41.4 billion from R38.6 billion in the prior year.

MTN South Africa’s total subscriber base grew by 15.4% to 25.4 million, driven primarily by 15% growth in the pre-paid segment to 20.9 million.

“This was largely due to competitive offerings and in particular the MTN Mahala and MTN Zone offerings as well as data services,” MTN said.

This financial growth was primarily driven by solid growth in data (excluding SMS) and airtime revenue, supported by subscriber growth.

“Data revenue increased by 37.6% to R6.4 billion and contributed 15.5% to total revenue (excluding SMS). Data revenue was boosted by the increase in data users to 13.4 million from 10.9 million, and 5.5 million smartphones on the network,” said MTN.

MTN said that capex for the period amounted to R6.416 billion. “MTN continued to modernise its network and focus on 3G coverage and capacity,” said MTN.

“Fibre rollout remains a priority to support the higher network volumes. The qualification criteria for Long Term Evolution (LTE) spectrum is still being finalised by the Minister of Communications who has embarked on a process to address the high demand frequency bands in South Africa.”

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