Share

Data driving SA mobile landscape

Cape Town - Data is growing among South Africans as Vodacom looks to data traffic as a driver of revenue.

"Data is still booming with revenue up 22%," Vodacom CEO Shameel Joosub told News24 as the mobile operator released its annual results on Monday.

The data growth makes up 18% of revenue in SA and Vodacom has moved to expand its network by building an additional 1 700 3G base stations in SA.

Joosub said that the average data use per smartphone on the network had increased by 33.4% to 143MB per month.

"It's a couple of things driving the growth: One is obviously the active programme to increase the data growth by putting more smartphones in the hands of users," he said.

Free data

The operator also offers customers free data to convince them to use the service and that, combined with financing plans for smartphones, has contributed to increasing smartphone users to six million, an increase of 26%.

"That's resulted in us increasing the number of smartphones on the base by 1.2 million to six million smartphones on the base," Joosub said.

In past year, Vodacom has spent R9.5bn on its network in SA as the company sees the integrity of the network as a competitive differentiator.

Joosub said that the actions to gain market share is showing success.

"We gained 3.8 million customers and now we have over 51.7 million customers across the group."

Vodacom hinted at a successful adoption by South Africans of the company's higher speed LTE (Long Term Evolution) network though the process is largely held up by the regulator.

Vodacom revealed that there are 165 000 LTE-capable devices on the network, underlying the move toward data consumption growing at a better rate than voice.

The operator will have around 1 000 LTE base stations by the end of 2013, but the spectrum to deliver 4G services remains locked at a policy level.

Complex issues


In 2011, department of communications minister Roy Padayachie alluded to the complexities facing his department in the allocation of spectrum.

"Unfortunately in the South African landscape, this problem is overlaid with very complex issues of race and colour and the way that it dominates the landscape of the economy," said Padayachie.

Data traffic continues to make an impact on the Vodacom bottom line, and expectations are that the trend of data growth over voice will continue in the medium term.

"We now have 14.4 million customers using data, so 47.5% of our base is now using data," said Joosub.

- Follow Duncan on Twitter
 
We live in a world where facts and fiction get blurred
Who we choose to trust can have a profound impact on our lives. Join thousands of devoted South Africans who look to News24 to bring them news they can trust every day. As we celebrate 25 years, become a News24 subscriber as we strive to keep you informed, inspired and empowered.
Join News24 today
heading
description
username
Show Comments ()
Rand - Dollar
19.09
-1.0%
Rand - Pound
24.05
-0.7%
Rand - Euro
20.58
-0.5%
Rand - Aus dollar
12.39
-0.3%
Rand - Yen
0.13
-0.9%
Platinum
894.64
-0.3%
Palladium
992.99
-0.9%
Gold
2,197.50
+0.1%
Silver
24.44
-0.8%
Brent Crude
86.09
-0.2%
Top 40
67,880
+0.3%
All Share
74,091
+0.3%
Resource 10
56,315
+1.2%
Industrial 25
103,611
+0.3%
Financial 15
16,459
-0.4%
All JSE data delayed by at least 15 minutes Iress logo
Company Snapshot
Editorial feedback and complaints

Contact the public editor with feedback for our journalists, complaints, queries or suggestions about articles on News24.

LEARN MORE
Government tenders

Find public sector tender opportunities in South Africa here.

Government tenders
This portal provides access to information on all tenders made by all public sector organisations in all spheres of government.
Browse tenders