Telkom mobile subscriber boom

Telkom’s financial results for the six months ending 30 September 2024 show significant mobile subscriber growth and a notable increase in mobile service revenue.

The group’s mobile business saw the biggest capital investment, R1.3 billion, expanding its footprint by 1.7% to 7,814 integrated sites.

It also grew its mobile subscriber base by 24.6% to 22.8 million.

“Mobile initiatives were focused on managing device costs by driving prepaid plans and stringent credit vetting to de-risk the post-paid portfolio,” said Telkom Group CEO Serame Taukobong.

“Roaming costs were well managed while expanding mobile network coverage and capacity to facilitate traffic migration onto our mobile network, leading to efficiency gains.”

Prepaid customers comprised the bulk of subscribers, expanding by 29.1% to 19.8 million from 15.3 million subscribers the year before.

On the other hand, post-paid subscribers increased by a mere 1.4% to just over 3 million.

However, Telkom’s average revenue per user (ARPU) only increased for post-paid customers, growing by 1.8% to R185.62. Prepaid ARPU dropped by 4.6% to R61.46.

The average ARPU also decreased by just under R5 to R79.97.

Total mobile operations revenue earned increased by 6% to R11.7 billion, which the group attributes to a 10% growth in mobile service revenue, which reached R10.2 billion.

Telkom’s overall revenue growth was also attributed to this increase in mobile service revenue and the group’s fibre business revenue.

Telkom also saw a surge in its mobile data consumers, which increased to 14.6 million from 12.2 million last year — a 19.6% jump.

The group noted that this implies that 64% of its mobile subscriber base now uses mobile broadband.

This increase also led to a surge in mobile data usage, which grew by 25.7% from 676 petabytes to 850 petabytes, or 850 million gigabytes.

“Data traffic increased by 25.7% and 28.5% for the mobile and fibre businesses, respectively, a testament to the healthy appetite for seamless connectivity in South Africa,” Telkom said.