The MTN Group has recorded 219,2-million subscribers as at the end of September 2014, an increase of 2% during the quarter.
Meanwhile, data revenue increased by 34% year-to-date, now contributing 17,8% to total revenue.
Registered Mobile Money subscribers of 22,2-million, up 20,2% quarter-on-quarter.
The South African operation regained traction with 1,4-million net additions for the quarter, but there was constrained subscriber growth in Nigeria as a result of regulatory pressure.
MTN Group president and CEO, Sifiso Dabengwa comments: “MTN reported encouraging results for the third quarter, delivering subscriber growth of 2% QoQ, however, performance was impacted by continued aggressive competition and stringent regulatory requirements.
“The South African operation delivered an improved performance in the prepaid segment supported by competitive offers while the Nigerian operation faced a challenging regulatory environment resulting in lower-than-expected growth. Group net addition subscriber guidance for the full year has increased marginally to 17,5-million.
“The group continued to benefit from good growth in non-voice revenue driven by data and Mobile Money across key markets. Data revenue increased by 34,4% year-on-year and now contributes 17,8% of total revenue. Good progress was also achieved in the optimisation of our operating model, particularly in reducing costs and the monetisation of assets with the announcement of the tower transaction in Nigeria during the quarter.”
MTN South Africa increased its subscriber base by 5,7% to 26,7-million, adding 1,4-million net additions for the quarter, mainly attributable to competitive offers such as “rush hour” and “talk free” in the prepaid segment. As a result, the prepaid subscriber base increased by 7,1% to 21,2-million, with encouraging growth in minutes of use during the quarter.
The postpaid segment delivered a satisfactory performance and grew its subscribers marginally to 5,5-million, 2-million of which were telemetry SIMs.
Data revenue growth was muted, largely impacted by a 17,9% decrease in the average effective rate per megabyte. Data now contributes 22,7% to the operation’s total revenue.
Data subscribers increased to 16,1-million and data usage grew by 55,9% supported by attractive data promotions and improved network quality.
In addition to improving revenue growth, MTN South Africa continues to focus on various cost containment initiatives and on optimising its operating model. Blended ARPU decreased by 4,6% to R89,26.
