Telecommunications group Vodacom has reported a surge in data use that has led to an increase in service revenue for the six months ended September 30.
The group’s revenue was up 7.8% to R47.8-billion during the half-year under review, underpinned by strong growth in Vodacom South Africa’s consumer and enterprise businesses, said Vodacom Group CEO Shameel Joosub.
Overall service revenue increased 7% to R38.5-billion, boosted by service revenue growth in South Africa of 7.1% to R27.6-billion.
The international operations reported service revenue of R11.4-billion, a reported 5.8% rise on the prior half-year. On a normalised basis, service revenue contracted 5.2%.
Earnings a share increased 15.6% to 533c and headline earnings a share were up 15.7% to 532c a share, boosted by a one-off deferred tax rate adjustment of R700-million in the period.
Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation increased 7% to R19.4-billion, with operating profit rising 12.3% to R14.5-million.
Data use volumes surged 86% in South Africa and 50% in the international operations, as connectivity demands changed with a need to work, entertain and educate from home.
“To help cope with sharp increases in data traffic and shifts in customer behaviour patterns, we accelerated network infrastructure spend over the six-month period to R6.6-billion, including R5-billion in South Africa,” Joosub explained.
During the period under revenue, Vodacom added 4.1-million customers, to serve a combined 120-million customers across the group, including Safaricom, and now have 63.1-million data customers.
Vodacom declared an interim dividend of 415c.