{"id":619210,"date":"2025-11-20T12:59:25","date_gmt":"2025-11-20T10:59:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/?p=619210"},"modified":"2025-11-20T13:00:23","modified_gmt":"2025-11-20T11:00:23","slug":"telkom-leaves-cell-c-in-the-dust","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/business-telecoms\/619210-telkom-leaves-cell-c-in-the-dust.html","title":{"rendered":"Telkom leaves Cell C in the dust"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Telkom\u2019s latest results showed that it is significantly outperforming Cell C in the South African mobile market.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On Tuesday, Telkom published its financial results for the six months ended 30 September 2025, which showed the company on the rise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Telkom Group\u2019s revenue for the six months increased 3.4% to R22.1 billion, and data revenue was up 7.9% to R13.1 billion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The strong top-line performance was reflected in the bottom line, with earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortisation (EBITDA) increasing 7.4% to R6.0 billion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

EBITDA is a key indicator of core operational performance and structural cost improvements at the telecoms operator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Telkom\u2019s mobile services continued to perform well, with mobile service revenue increasing by 7.9%, outpacing market growth rates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mobile data subscribers increased by an exceptional 26.7% to 18.5 million, now accounting for 75.3% of the total mobile subscriber base of 24.5 million.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This growth was fuelled by prepaid subscribers, which rose by 9.0% to 21.6 million, with average revenue per user (ARPU) holding at R60.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Telkom Mobile\u2019s post-paid base was stable, while the average revenue per user improved to R190.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe competitiveness of the mobile business is demonstrated by market-leading service revenue growth,\u201d Telkom said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOur mobile business delivered  market-leading service revenue growth for the eleventh consecutive quarter to June 2025.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Telkom CEO Serame Taukobong said in the second half, revenue will remain a key area of focus across the group.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe will continue to leverage the unique advantage of our extensive fibre footprint to drive growth through our strong mobile offerings in service and data,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Taukobong said they expect to maintain service revenue growth at mid-single digits for the mobile business.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOur EBITDA margin will moderate slightly due to the seasonality of investing in the summer campaign and the festive season,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Telkom versus Cell C<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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Telkom, Centurion Campus, Entrance Gates<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Comparing the results of Telkom\u2019s mobile division with those of Cell C reveals one company on the rise and another on the decline.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Between 2017 and 2025, Telkom increased its mobile revenue from R6.0 billion to approximately R25.4 billion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The company increased its mobile subscriber base from 4 million in 2017 to 24.5 million in 2025.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This rapid growth helped Telkom to overtake Cell C as the third-largest mobile operator in South Africa by 2022.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, it was not only because Telkom performed well. Cell C has been losing subscribers to other mobile operators at a rapid rate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2017, Cell C had 16.3 million mobile subscribers. This was significantly higher than Telkom Mobile\u2019s 4 million.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, over the next eight years, Cell C\u2019s subscriber numbers dropped to 7.6 million, which means it is now only a third of the size of Telkom.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The decline in subscribers had a significant impact on Cell C\u2019s top line, with revenue decreasing from R15.7 billion in 2017 to R11.1 billion in 2025.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This means that Cell C\u2019s revenue went from nearly triple that of Telkom in 2017 to less than half eight years later.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Telkom\u2019s strong performance is a key reason why the company\u2019s share price increased by 68% over the last year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With Cell C\u2019s looming listing on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE), investors will have to decide whether Telkom or Cell C is the best option.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While Cell C is making numerous promises to the market about future performance improvements, Telkom has shown that it can deliver.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

Telkom versus Cell C mobile subscribers<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Telkom versus Cell C mobile revenue<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Telkom\u2019s latest results showed that it is significantly outperforming Cell C in the South African mobile market.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":619225,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41906],"tags":[355,1355,109,689],"class_list":["post-619210","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business-telecoms","tag-cell-c","tag-serame-taukobong","tag-telkom","tag-telkom-mobile"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/619210"}],"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=619210"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/619210\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":619250,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/619210\/revisions\/619250"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/619225"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=619210"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=619210"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=619210"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}