JOHANNESBURG, South Africa-M-Cell, the holding company of the mobile network operator MTN, announced trading figures for the period from 1 April to 30 June in its quarterly trading update.
The network has managed to secure a total of 5,078,000 mobile subscribers on its networks in South Africa, Cameroon, Nigeria, Rwanda, Swaziland and Uganda as of 30 June. This is reported to be a 6.4-percent growth since 31 March, 2002, the group’s financial year-end.
MTN South Africa increased its prepaid subscriber base to 31. million subscribers and added 12,000 subscribers to its postpaid base, which now stands at 864,000 as of end-June. Blended average revenue per user (ARPU) numbers were maintained at 208 rand (US$19.71) per month. While post-paid ARPU has increased, prepaid ARPU declined during the first quarter.
MTN International, the operating division responsible for the group’s operations outside South Africa, witnessed strong subscriber growth of 24.1 percent to a record 1.11 million total subscribers for the quarter between 31 March and 30 June. A major contributor to this was MTN’s Nigerian operation, which recorded 454,000 subscribers, while strong performances from MTN Cameroon, MTN Uganda and MTN Rwanda saw increases to 263,000, 260,000 and 79,000 subscribers respectively. MTN Swaziland is experiencing a more maturing market and recorded 57,000 subscribers.
Phuthuma Nhleko, group chief executive, said: “The group remains well positioned to achieve its objective of generating around 35 percent of its revenue from operations outside South Africa within the next two years. At the same time, our entry into data services will create new revenue streams as the South African market matures.”
