In a period of three months, according to its 2022 Q2 financial results, South African mobile network operator Vodacom lost nearly 400,000 subscribers between the beginning of April 2022 and the end of June 2022. Read on to know more about the nearly 400,000 subscribers lost by Vodacom.
Highlights of the nearly 400,000 subscribers lost by Vodacom
- The group’s revenue climbed by 5.2 percent (3.3 percent em) to R26.1 billion, supported by South Africa’s strong performance. Growth in data revenue and new services like IoT helped to boost group service revenue by 5.2 percent (2.9 percent) overall.
- Service revenue in South Africa increased by 3.0 percent as customer contract performance improved.
- Powered by rising data income and a depreciating rand, international service revenue climbed by 10.4% (2.4%).
- Revenue from financial services climbed by 9.3% to R2.1 billion as Tanzania announced further reductions in mobile money charges.
Despite the drop in subscriber count, which Vodacom attributed to a challenging macro backdrop of higher food and fuel inflation and delays in social grant payments, Vodacom saw its prepaid customer revenue amazingly increase by 1.7 percent to R6.2 billion, which is approximately $364 million. This was given in a detailed report Vodacom put out.
In terms of Internet usage on its network, Vodacom, the South African mobile network operator saw a 30.2 percent increase in data traffic during the quarter, with data customers increasing by 8.6 percent to 23 million. The number of smart devices on the Vodacom network also increased by 11.5 percent to 26.4 million, while the number of 4G devices increased by 11.3 percent to 18.2 million. The average monthly data usage per smart device, they reported, increased by 25.2% to 2.7 gigabytes.
In addition, the company’s mobile contract customer revenue increased by 5.8 percent to R5.5 billion. Vodacom’s mobile contract customer base grew by 52,000 subscribers, while average revenue per user (ARPU) increased by 0.7 percent to R294 per user. This is despite contract pricing increasing by 3% to 5% as a result of inflationary cost pressures.
Vodacom Business, the Vodacom Group’s Business-to-Business (B2B) unit comprised of enterprise fixed and mobile, Internet of Things (IoT), cloud and hosting, wholesale and carrier services, and security businesses, increased revenue by 2.5 percent to R4.3 billion, which is approximately $252 million, owing to “sustained demand for mobile connectivity and IoT revenue,” according to Vodacom.
Following the discontinuation of its live streaming app Video Play in early July in favour of VodaPay, a lifestyle super app launched in October last year, Vodacom saw the super app maintain its impressive adoption rate with 2.8 million downloads and 1.9 million registered users by the end of the quarter under review.
In summarizing the 2022 Q2 financial results, Vodacom SA stated that it was fully aware of the financial pressures on customers brought on by increased inflation and global economic uncertainty. Vodacom reaffirmed its commitment to delivering innovations that increase the value for customers and help them to relieve the pressures associated with the cost of living.