Hard on the heels of its recent 5G announcement comes more good news for Vodacom in the form of recently published results for the company that indicate impressive growth, especially in South Africa.
Its consolidated revenue for the fiscal third quarter ending 31 December 2019 increased 6.6 percent year-on-year to $1.58 billion. Vodacom added 484,000 customers in South Africa, supported, the company says, by a successful summer campaign. In its international operations it added 1.7 million customers during the period.
South African revenue and service revenue growth rates improved to 5.9 percent and 4.6 percent respectively, supported by increased data uptake. International operations also continued to perform with strong growth in data and M-Pesa revenues. The announcement indicated that operations outside South Africa now contribute over 40 percent to group service revenue.
One minor cloud over this upbeat news is the fact that in January the company had to disconnect 1.7 million customers in Tanzania as a result of customer registration requirements, primarily due to the lack of government-approved identification documents. Vodacom does, however, expect to reconnect many of these customers over the short-to-medium term once they have been biometrically registered.
And now, as we have reported elsewhere today, Vodacom South Africa is planning a 5G rollout, helped by a recent roaming agreement with Liquid Telecom. Who, where, or how big the initially targeted subscriber market will be is not yet clear, however.