{"id":603915,"date":"2025-07-24T14:02:07","date_gmt":"2025-07-24T12:02:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/?p=603915"},"modified":"2025-07-24T14:06:52","modified_gmt":"2025-07-24T12:06:52","slug":"vodacom-telkom-and-mtn-dividend-payments-compared","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/technology\/603915-vodacom-telkom-and-mtn-dividend-payments-compared.html","title":{"rendered":"Vodacom, Telkom, and MTN dividend payments compared"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

South African telecommunications companies rank among the top businesses in South Africa, generating billions in profits and tax revenue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

South Africa\u2019s three largest telecoms players, Vodacom, MTN, and Telkom, have dominated the market for three decades.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Telkom was established on 1 October 1991, when the Department of Posts and Telecommunications (DPT) was split into Telkom and the SA Post Office.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 1991, Telkom had 3.5 million fixed telephone lines, and the demand for them was growing. Interestingly, it still had 89,661 manual exchange lines at the time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 1993, Telkom entered a joint venture with Vodafone and the Rembrandt Group to form Vodacom Group. It received the first national cellular radio telephony service licence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That same year, MTN secured the second national cellular radio telephony service licences in South Africa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Vodacom started building a mobile network in 1993, and eight months later, in January 2024, MTN followed suit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Vodacom launched its commercial operations on 1 April 1994, with MTN on its heels two months later. They have been fierce competitors ever since.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2009, Telkom sold its 50% stake in Vodacom. A year later, in October 2010, Telkom launched its own mobile operator, 8ta. Telkom has since discontinued the 8ta brand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In addition to rapidly expanding in South Africa, Vodacom and MTN have expanded their operations across Africa and the Middle East.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Vodacom, which is majority-owned by Vodafone, serves over 200 million customers across its consumer and enterprise segments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It has operations in South Africa, the DRC, Egypt, Ethiopia, Kenya, Lesotho, Mozambique, and Tanzania. Its mobile networks cover a population of over 500 million people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

MTN provides voice, data, fintech, digital, enterprise, wholesale and API services to 297 million customers in 16 markets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It operates in numerous countries across Africa and the Middle East, including South Africa, Botswana, Cameroon, Iran, Liberia, Uganda, Yemen, and Zambia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Vodacom is the fourteenth largest company on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE), MTN is ranked fifteenth, and Telkom is at 62.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Telecommunications companies are widely seen as ex-growth, and while they are still building new revenue streams, dividends are important to investors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here is a look at Vodacom, MTN, and Telkom\u2019s dividends and how consistently shareholders received money from the three companies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

Vodacom<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Vodacom was listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) in May 2009 and has paid dividends every single year since its listing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Vodacom\u2019s dividend per share increased to just over R8 in 2012 and has roughly been maintained until 2022.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since then, the dividends per share have experienced some pressure, falling to R6.20 in its last financial year. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Vodacom has paid an impressive average dividend yield of 5.75% since its listing on the JSE.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\n

MTN<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Over the last two decades, which included some challenging times for the company, MTN has paid dividends for all but three of the years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

MTN\u2019s dividends per share increased to R12.80 in 2012, after which they decreased significantly to R3.45 per share in 2025.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

MTN has paid an average dividend yield of 3.39% since 2002.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\n

Telkom<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Telkom, listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) in 2003, has paid dividends in 16 out of the 23 years since its listing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Telkom\u2019s dividend per share fell from R22.75 in 2009 to R2.61 paid in 2025. Since its listing, it has paid an average dividend yield of 2.66%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

South African telecommunications companies have traditionally been good dividend payers. Here is a look at the performance of Vodacom, MTN, and Telkom.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":603958,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sma_x_autopost_status":"idle","_sma_x_autopost_error":"","_sma_x_post_id":"","_sma_facebook_post_id":"","_sma_instagram_post_id":"","_sma_threads_post_id":"","_sma_x_attempts":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[42,109,41],"class_list":["post-603915","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-technology","tag-mtn","tag-telkom","tag-vodacom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/603915"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/23"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=603915"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/603915\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":603942,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/603915\/revisions\/603942"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/603958"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=603915"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=603915"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=603915"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}