South Africans are flocking to Telkom Mobile

Staff Writer27 May 201925 Comments

Telkom has released its annual results for the year ended 31 March 2019, showing a huge increase in the number of mobile users on its network.
The results revealed that mobile service revenue up 58.3% for the period, reaching R8.15 billion. Mobile revenue contribution has now increased from 3.2% to 25.7% for the company.
“The significant growth in mobile service revenue was supported by an 85.9% growth in active subscribers to 9.7 million, as our affordable broadband-led proposition continues to resonate with customers,” said Telkom.
This included a 109.3% growth in prepaid users to 7.8 million.
Telkom Mobile subscriber numbers now stand at:

• Prepaid – 7.8 million
• Post-paid – 1.8 million

“Despite adding 4.5 million subscribers in the year, our blended average revenue per user (ARPU) was stable at R100,” added Telkom.
“Our prepaid proposition continues to attract good quality subscribers demonstrated by a significant increase in prepaid ARPU of 19.8% to R71. Post-paid subscribers increased by 26.8%, with net additions of approximately 396,000 to reach 1.9 million, with an ARPU of R186.”
The sharp increase in customers has also led to a jump in data revenue for Telkom, which increased by 34.7% to R8.91 billion.
Looking at mobile data revenue growth only, numbers were up 60.7% to R5.91 billion.

Increased costs

The improved performance of Telkom’s mobile division did not come without costs, however, and direct costs associated with the mobile business increased 20.7%.
This was largely due to “an increase in store footprint and extension of distribution channels and an increase in dealers incentives”.
Maintenance costs to support a 28.7% increase in mobile sites by 1,142 sites in the year were also noted.