Vodacom has released its quarterly update for the period ended 31 December 2014, which showed group revenue decreased by 1.1% to R19,993 million. Service revenue was down 2.7% to R15,815 million.<\/p>\n
Looking at South Africa, Vodacom\u2019s revenue declined by 3.1% to R15,987 million. This decline was mainly a result of declining service revenue.<\/p>\n
\u201cService revenue declined 5.8% due to the 50% cut in MTRs in April 2014 and by increased competition and weaker consumer spending. Excluding the impact of MTRs, service revenue declined 1.7%,\u201d Vodacom said.<\/p>\n
The big news for Vodacom is data. Vodacom CEO Shameel Joosub said that Vodacom\u2019s total active data customers were up 16.4% to 26.5 million.<\/p>\n
\u201cData traffic grew 62.2% in South Africa and almost threefold in international operations. Data now makes up 27.4% of service revenue,\u201d said Joosub.<\/p>\n
In South Africa data revenue grew 18.8% to R3,526 million, against exceptionally strong data growth in Q3 last year, to make up 29.7% of group service revenue.<\/p>\n
\u201cData traffic in South Africa increased 62.2% (year-on-year) and active data customers increased to 16.8 million – or 53.4% of our active customers,\u201d Vodacom said.<\/p>\n
\u201cAlthough our effective price per MB reduced by 26.5%, we maintained stable pricing quarter on quarter.\u201d<\/p>\n
Vodacom drove data adoption by increasing the number of data-capable devices on its network through its\u00a0handset financing programme and through strong sales of its low-cost devices.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe number of active smartphones and tablets on our network grew 23.6% to 9.5 million devices. Average monthly data usage was up 41.1% to 358MB on smartphones,\u201d said Vodacom.<\/p>\n
To support this boom in data demand, Vodacom invested in its mobile data network. This included an expansion of its LTE network.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn South Africa, Vodacom\u2019s LTE service now covers 34% of the population through 2,194 sites, while 3G population coverage is 94% through 8,407 sites,\u201d said Joosub.<\/p>\n
\u201c77.8% of our sites are now connected to our self-provided high-capacity transmission network. We also launched our fibre-to-the-business on a limited basis in September 2014,\u201d said Joosub.<\/p>\n
Massive Vodacom uncapped fibre price cuts<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n