Data traffic on MTN South Africa\u2019s network grew 46.7% between the first quarter of 2021 and 2022, and active data subscribers grew 14.1% to 17.3 million.<\/p>\n
This underpinned a 14.3% increase in overall mobile data revenue, the company announced in a quarterly trading update on Friday.<\/p>\n
\u201cData was made more affordable in the quarter with a 22.8% YoY reduction in the effective data tariff,\u201d MTN stated.<\/p>\n
\u201cAn active prepaid data subscriber now consumes an average of 4.0GB of data a month, up 37% YoY, and an active postpaid data subscriber uses nearly 11.8GB per month, an increase of 20%.\u201d<\/p>\n
MTN said that network availability and quality were affected by load-shedding from the national grid, and theft and vandalism of towers since Q4 2021.<\/p>\n
MTN South Africa rolled out a resilience plan including additional batteries, generators, and enhanced security features to mitigate these issues.<\/p>\n
The company announced it had already paid R3.3 billion in April 2022 for mid-band radio frequencies it secured during industry regulator Icasa\u2019s spectrum auction<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n With the purchase, MTN\u2019s permanent spectrum holdings rose from 76MHz to 176MHz. It said it would use the resource to support the expansion of 4G and 5G services.<\/p>\n \u201cThe spectrum has been allotted for a 20-year period on a technology-neutral basis,\u201d MTN said.<\/p>\n MTN said that its South African division\u2019s performance outlook would be shaped by macroeconomic conditions in the country, such as load-shedding and global macroeconomic uncertainties.<\/p>\n These are expected to add to inflationary pressures, including costs and availability of food and fuel.<\/p>\n MTN warned this would further impact consumer spending power and patterns.<\/p>\n