That is a greater number of new customers in three months than Cell C has signed up after more than five years of operation. <\/p>\n
Vodacom’s total customer base did not climb by 4,4-million, however, as some of its existing customers defected to rival networks. A quarterly update published yesterday showed that its greatest growth by far was on its home turf of SA, where it won 1,59-million new customers in a market that still shows little sign of reaching saturation. <\/p>\n
Vodacom SA claims a market share of 59%, and says that cellphones have reached 89% of the population. Its local churn rate fell, but the network still lost almost a quarter of its existing customers to its rivals as users continue to hop from one network to another. <\/p>\n
Overall, Vodacom now serves 32,4-million customers in SA, Tanzania, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Lesotho and Mozambique, up 7,5% during the three-month period. <\/p>\n
Its foreign networks account for 24% of its customers. <\/p>\n
Its year-on-year revenue for the quarter to June, rose 18,6%. On the downside, the average revenue per user in each country dropped, as less affluent users joined up and whittled down the average monthly spending. <\/p>\n
Its 24,59-million customers in SA now spend an average of R118 a month, down from R125 at the beginning of the year. The decline was more marked in the Congo, where average customer spending dived 18% from R77 to R63. <\/p>\n
Despite the nonstop growth in customer numbers, Vodacom still lags by far larger rival MTN, which was serving 44,3-million when it posted figures for the end of March. <\/p>\n
When Vodacom issued its results for the year to March last month, CEO Alan Knott-Craig said he saw no reason why the SA cellular market “shouldn’t continue to grow for some time to come”.<\/p>\n