Vodacom on Tuesday released a trading update for the quarter ended 31 December 2008, indicating continued growth for the last quarter.<\/p>\n
The mobile provider said that revenue for the nine months ended 31 December 2008 increased by 13.7% to R40.5 billion compared to the prior year period, largely driven by a 14.3% increase in Group mobile customers to 37.8 million. <\/p>\n
The Group’s non-South African operations comprised 11.3 million customers, or 30.0% of the total customer base as at 31 December 2008. <\/p>\n
Group mobile customers as at 31 December 2008 increased by 5.8% in comparison to the previous quarter.<\/p>\n
South African mobile customers increased by 4.8% to 26.5 million at 31 December 2008 from 25.2 million at 30 September 2008. <\/p>\n
Mobile customers from Vodacom’s non-South African operations increased by 8.4% to 11.3 million at 31 December 2008 from 10.4 million at 30 September 2008. <\/p>\n
Commenting on these results, Vodacom Group Chief Executive Officer Pieter Uys said: “Expanding our African footprint beyond South Africa is one of the pillars of Vodacom’s growth strategy. I’m pleased to say that this quarter we reached an important milestone with 30% of our total customer base now coming from our operations in Tanzania, the DRC, Lesotho and Mozambique. The acquisition of Gateway Communications was completed at the end of the quarter, and will help us to further build our business across the continent.”<\/p>\n