Vodacom Reports Growth in Subscribers, Revenues

Mobile phone operator Ton Tuesday reported that increased subscriber numbers, largely from non-South African operations, boosted the group’s revenues to R40,5-billion in the nine months ended December 2008.

This was a 13,7% increase in revenue when compared with the prior year.

An overall 14,3% lift in customers took Vodacom’s subscriber numbers to 37,8-million. Some 30%, or 11,3-million, of these subscribers where outside of South Africa, as the company continued its aggressive drive to grow subscriber numbers further into Africa.

"Expanding our African footprint beyond South Africa is one of the pillars of Vodacom’s growth strategy. I’m pleased to say that this quarter we reached an important milestone, with 30% of our total customer base now coming from our operations in Tanzania, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Lesotho and Mozambique,” said Vodacom group CEO Pieter Uys.

Mobile customers from Vodacom’s non-South African operations increased by 8,4% to 11,3-million at December 2008, from 10,4-million at September 2008.