Telecommunications group MTN has boosted its overall subscriber base by 0.9% quarter-on-quarter in the three months ended September 30, benefiting from a 2% growth in the South African market that emerged largely from the prepaid segment and pushed the domestic subscriber base to 29.1-million.

Overall billable minutes of use, meanwhile, increased 41.4% year-on-year, while constant currency data revenue increased by 27% year-on-year, now contributing 23.2% to total revenue.

Voice and data traffic increased 18.7% and 120% respectively, while subscribers to the network’s mobile banking service Mobile Money increased by 12.7% quarter-on-quarter to 36.5-million.

MTN, meanwhile, continued to invest in its global third-generation (3G) network over the three months under review, catering for increased demand for data services during the quarter, adding 3 800 3G sites and 1 357 long-term evolution (LTE) sites and increasing 3G device penetration – and resultant data traffic – across its operations by more than 100% year-on-year.

Mobile Money and digital content revenues continued to gain healthy traction, the telecommunications provider added, steadily increasing their contribution to revenue. 

MTN president and CEO Sifiso Dabengwa said the group’s third-quarter results reflected the continued progress made in the South African operation, strengthening its market position and improvements in network quality, following corrective measures taken at MTN Nigeria.

“However, aggressive price competition, weakening macroeconomic conditions in most of our markets and unfavourable exchange rate movements continued to impact on the financial performance for the quarter,” he held.

MTN SOUTH AFRICA
The post-paid subscriber base in South Africa recorded a 2.6% decline to 5.2- million owing to the disconnections of some 90 000 low-cost router SIM cards recorded on the Autopage subscriber base and the low availability of handsets.

MTN noted that, while supply-chain issues had been largely resolved, the operation continued to experience the limited availability of handsets during the
quarter as a result of delayed deliveries.

Data revenue in South Africa increased 40% and now contributed 31.5% to total revenue, driven by “attractive” segmented data bundles and an increased uptake in digital services.

“The roll-out of the 3G and LTE networks continued to make good progress, with 1 746 largely colocated 3G and 811 LTE sites added in South Africa during the quarter, while average revenue per user increased 8.8% for the quarter,” said the group.

MTN NIGERIA
MTN Nigeria recorded a marginal decline in its subscriber base to 62.5-million subscribers over the three months as a result of the disconnection of 5.1-million subscribers at the end of August, in line with industry-wide regulatory registration requirements.

To date, 3.4-million of these subscribers had been reconnected.

“While management continues to engage with the regulator, performance continues to be impacted by ongoing regulatory restrictions.

“We have also put corrective measures in place to address the operational challenges experienced in the first half of the year and have seen significant improvement in network quality, together with more competitive offerings,” the company held.

Billable minutes of use in Nigeria increased 12.8% year-on-year, while data revenue increased 16.8% and now contributed 21.3% to total revenue.

This despite data revenue growth being impacted by a 60% decline in data tariffs as a result of aggressive competition.

The company added that improving data speeds through aggressive 3G roll-out in main cities in the country remained a priority and was on track, with 630 3G and 66 LTE sites rolled out over the three months.

Digital revenue, meanwhile, continued to gain traction, now contributing 10.2%
to total revenue.

Diamond Yellow, MTN’s Nigeria-focused mobile money offering, continued to make good progress, with a key focus on expanding the distribution footprint.

INTERNATIONAL SHOWING
Elsewhere across its portfolio, MTN Irancell delivered a strong performance in a competitive market, increasing its subscriber base by 3% to 45.5-million, with an incremental increase in market share.

MTN Ghana delivered a sound performance, increasing its subscriber base by 4.1% and surpassing 15-million at the end of the quarter.

In contrast, MTN Cameroon’s subscriber base decreased by 4% to 9.9-million over the three months, owing to the disconnection of low-cost routing subscribers and a revised subscriber registration process.

“The operation continues to experience aggressive price competition, which resulted in the effective rate per minute declining 15.5% year-on-year,” said the group.

MTN Ivory Coast recorded a marginal decline in its subscriber base to 8.5-million, following the “clean up” of the subscriber base, while MTN Uganda increased its subscriber base by 3.4% to 11.5-million.

MTN Sudan reported a net reduction of 442 000 subscribers for the quarter to 8.3-million subscribers, largely on the back of  new subscriber registration requirements.

MTN Syria, meanwhile, improved its subscriber base marginally to 5.7-million, despite operating in “extremely” challenging conditions.