MTN Group said its South African operation regained traction in the quarterly period ended September 2014, adding 1.4 million new subscribers.<\/p>\n
Subscribers advanced 5.7%, from 25.269 million, to 26.701 million, mainly attributable to competitive offers such as \u201crush hour\u201d and \u201ctalk free\u201d in the prepaid segment, it said.<\/p>\n
As a result, the prepaid subscriber base increased by 7.1% to 21.2 million, while the postpaid segment grew its subscribers marginally to 5.5 million, 2.0 million of which were telemetry SIMs.<\/p>\n
Data revenue growth was muted, largely impacted by a 17.9% decrease in the average effective rate per megabyte. Data now contributes 22.7% to the operation\u00b4s total revenue.<\/p>\n
Data subscribers increased to 16.1 million and data usage grew by 55.9% supported by attractive data promotions and improved network quality, MTN said.<\/p>\n
\u201cSouth Africa continues to focus on various cost containment initiatives and on optimising its operating model,\u201d the group said.<\/p>\n
Blended ARPU for SA decreased by 4.6% to R89.26, during the quarterly period.<\/p>\n
In August, MTN noted that market share in SA declined by 2.7 percentage points to 31.9% as competition intensified in the pre-paid segment.<\/p>\n
MTN Group president and CEO, Sifiso Dabengwa, said that challenges for its local operation were \u201cas a direct result of not being competitive\u201d.<\/p>\n
However, MTN chief financial officer, Brett Goschen said that the SA segment had turned a corner, with the group \u201ccautiously optimistic\u201d. He pointed to 400,000 net additions in July alone.<\/p>\n
MTN SA had seen a drop in subscribers between Q4 2013, and Q1 2014, to 24.875 million, from 25.7 million. However, the group saw approximately half a million net additions in the following quarter.<\/p>\n
MTN Group highlighted \u201csatisfactory subscriber growth\u201d of 2% to 219 million subscribers quarter-on-quarter (QoQ), across its 22 territories.<\/p>\n
Data revenue increased by 34% year-to-date (YTD), contributing 17.8% to total revenue.<\/p>\n
The group also pointed to registered Mobile Money subscribers of 22.2 million, up 20.2% QoQ.<\/p>\n
\u201cMTN reported encouraging results for the third quarter, delivering subscriber growth of 2,0% QoQ, however, performance was impacted by continued aggressive competition and stringent regulatory requirements,\u201d said Dabengwa in a statement.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe South African operation delivered an improved performance in the prepaid segment supported by competitive offers while the Nigerian operation faced a challenging regulatory environment resulting in lower-than-expected growth.\u201d<\/p>\n
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