Growth in prepaid connections boosted MTN South Africa\u2019s subscriber base by 2% for the quarter ended September 30 2015.<\/p>\n
This is according to the group\u2019s latest market update released on Thursday.<\/p>\n
\u201cMTN South Africa continued to gain momentum, increasing its subscriber base by 2% to 29.1 million for the quarter,\u201d said the company in a statement to shareholders.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis was mainly as a result of a 3.1% increase in the prepaid subscriber base, supported by the continued success of attractive below-the-line campaigns,\u201d said MTN.<\/p>\n
The company further added that billable minutes on its network increased by 41.4% year on year during the quarter.<\/p>\n
Contract woes<\/strong><\/p>\n But while MTN\u2019s prepaid subscriber base spurred on growth, the company\u2019s postpaid segment declined 2.6% to 5.2 million.<\/p>\n This was owing to approximately 90 000 disconnections of low-cost router SIM cards with Altech Autopage subscribers and the low availability of handsets, said MTN.<\/p>\n In MTN\u2019s interim results statement released in August, the company explained that a Communication Workers Union (CWU) strike impacted on its handset supply chain.<\/p>\n And after the strike ended in July, MTN indicated that it is still shaking off its handset problems.<\/p>\n “While supply chain issues have been largely resolved, the operation continued to experience limited availability of handsets during the quarter as a result of delayed deliveries,\u201d said the company on Thursday.<\/p>\n Other results pertaining to MTN\u2019s SA market indicated that data revenue increased 40% and contributes 31.5% to total revenue, the company added 811 LTE sites during the quarter and its average revenue per user (ARPU) increased 8.8% for the period.<\/p>\n Nigeria drags down group Meanwhile, the MTN Group recorded slower subscriber growth in its Africa and Middle East operation as Nigeria dragged down its performance.<\/p>\n Subscriber growth in the region topped just 0.9% quarter-on-quarter to hit 233 million users in MTN\u2019s 22 markets.<\/p>\n MTN\u2019s biggest market, Nigeria, experienced negative subscriber growth of 0.5% quarter-on-quarter from 62.8 million to 62.5 million.<\/p>\n The operator has blamed Nigerian authorities\u2019 disconnection of 5.1 million subscribers for regulatory reasons as a key factor for the fall.<\/p>\n Fin24<\/a><\/p>\n Why MTN does not advertise cheap smartphones<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n
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