{"id":627234,"date":"2026-01-30T15:01:16","date_gmt":"2026-01-30T13:01:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/?p=627234"},"modified":"2026-01-30T15:02:02","modified_gmt":"2026-01-30T13:02:02","slug":"telkom-has-done-something-vodacom-and-mtn-could-not","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/cellular\/627234-telkom-has-done-something-vodacom-and-mtn-could-not.html","title":{"rendered":"Telkom has done something Vodacom and MTN could not"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Telkom has managed to grow its mobile prepaid subscriber base, even as South Africa\u2019s two largest operators, Vodacom and MTN, both reported declines.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In its results for the six months ended 30 September 2025, Telkom reported that its total mobile subscribers grew by 7.7% to 24.5 million.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This increase was fuelled by continuing growth in its prepaid subscriber base, which rose by 9% to 21.6 million. Prepaid average revenue per user (ARPU) held at R60, while its blended ARPU was R77.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Meanwhile, Vodacom reported in its interim results for the same period that its prepaid mobile customer revenue decreased 1.6% to R13.2 billion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe result was impacted by pressure on the consumer wallet and incremental competitive intensity,\u201d Vodacom stated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIn the second quarter, prepaid revenue declined 2.9% (1Q: 0.4%). Our prepaid base of 39.2 million customers declined 7.4% as we churned inactive customers in prior quarters.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the second quarter, Vodacom added 0.3 million customers, and it said the resultant customer base delivered a healthier second-quarter ARPU of R57, up 3.6%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

MTN has a different financial year than Telkom and Vodacom, but it provided a trading update for its third quarter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

MTN reported that its prepaid customer base decreased by 0.4% to 29.4 million from 29.5 million, also citing higher churn amid intensified competition in the segment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While MTN\u2019s prepaid subscriber base is still larger than it was in the first and second quarters of 2024, it is smaller than in the third and fourth quarters of last year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

MTN had 29.5 million prepaid subscribers in South Africa in September 2024. That means the figures remain the same whether you analyse its prepaid base quarter-on-quarter or year-over-year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mobile operator<\/th>Prepaid subscribers on 30 September<\/th>% Change<\/th><\/tr><\/thead>
Telkom<\/td>21.6 million<\/td>+9.0%<\/strong><\/mark><\/td><\/tr>
MTN SA<\/td>29.4 million<\/td>-0.4%<\/strong><\/mark><\/td><\/tr>
Vodacom SA<\/td>39.2 million<\/td>-7.4%<\/strong><\/mark><\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Telkom\u2019s AI-driven prepaid strategy<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Asked about this disparity between Telkom and the rest of the sector\u2019s prepaid figures, the CEO of Telkom\u2019s consumer and small business division, Lunga Siyo, said they actively focused on the segment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere has been a change in behaviour from a customer perspective. People\u2019s disposable incomes are hard-pressed, so customers like to control their spend, and they find resonance with prepaid,\u201d said Siyo.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOn the other hand, you would have noticed that, for every operator, data traffic has been increasing.\u201d In other words, they all have had to deliver more while charging less.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To optimise its products and packages, Siyo said Telkom doubled down on its data science and customer value management capabilities to better understand customer behaviour.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAs we acquire customers, we then get a couple of data points in terms of how you behave, your frequency of recharging, your frequency of top-ups, your location, your movements, what works for you,\u201d he explained.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIs it a pocket router? Is it an LTE router? Is it a mobile SIM card? These are all data points we consider.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Siyo said they also disagreed with many analysts who said the telecommunications sector was ex-growth. There was growth to be had as long as you were focused and offered good value.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIf you look at the entire industry, total growth is around 2\u20133%. However, if you play within that, you can find your own space and find growth,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOthers might struggle, and you still have depressed levels of disposable income, so you really have to play a value game in the market.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another factor was keeping your costs down to ensure you drive positive margins. \u201cOtherwise, everyone suffers,\u201d said Siyo.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

South Africans cutting cellular spending<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Mobile network operators have repeatedly used phrases such as \u201cdespite challenging economic conditions\u201d in their financial reports to describe their performance in South Africa over the past few years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Results from the latest Old Mutual Savings and Investment Monitor agree. It showed that spending on cellular services is among the first things households cut back<\/a> when they come under financial pressure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While there has been some improvement since last year, 23% of respondents said they have adapted their lifestyles by switching to the cheapest cell phone or data plan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is down from 27% last year, following the trend of consumers overall taking a more relaxed stance to cost-cutting. However, it remains high with over 1 in 5 people saying they cut cellular spending.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Interestingly, the impact of people\u2019s cost-cutting is not immediately evident in the revenue and service revenue figures of Vodacom, MTN, and Telkom.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Each operator has found its own way to maintain and grow revenues despite the high-interest-rate, high-inflation environment South Africa has navigated in recent years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, one indicator which clearly illustrated that end-users had cut back on their cellular spending was the declining average revenue per user across all operators.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

An analysis of their annual financial results since 2020 shows that MTN SA\u2019s ARPU has declined substantially in the past six years, while Telkom has seen year-over-year declines since 2021.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Meanwhile, Vodacom SA\u2019s blended ARPU is higher than it was in 2020, but lower than its high in the 2021 financial year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Telkom has managed to grow its mobile prepaid subscriber base, even as South Africa’s two largest operators both reported declines over the same periods.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":476869,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41906,14,80335],"tags":[48518,42,109,41],"class_list":["post-627234","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business-telecoms","category-cellular","category-investing","tag-lunga-siyo","tag-mtn","tag-telkom","tag-vodacom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/627234"}],"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\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=627234"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/627234\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":627244,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/627234\/revisions\/627244"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/476869"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=627234"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=627234"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=627234"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}