MTN Group increased its subscriber numbers by 3.2 percent over the first quarter to 195.4 million. Growth was led by Nigeria, where it added a net 3.9 million new customers in the three months, helping offset a net loss of 470,000 customers in its home market South Africa. Customer numbers were also up in Ghana (290,000), Cameroon (192,000), Ivory Coast (354,000), Uganda (248,000) and Syria (364,000). MTN maintained its guidance for net additions over the full year of 21 million.
In South Africa after a strong 2012‚ the past quarter was characterised by a weaker consumer environment as well as increased pricing competition, MTN said. The average price per minute declined 5.5 percent compared to the same period a year earlier‚ putting revenue growth under pressure. Blended ARPU declined 8.1 percent to ZAR 110.62 as a result of promotional activities and the decline in tariffs. Towards the end of the quarter there were some signs of improvement in both subscriber and revenue trends, the company said. Data services continued to grow‚ with active data subscribers at 13.3 million and data revenue‚ including MTN Business and mobile data‚ up 15.7 percent year-on-year.
In Nigeria, the market picked up after price reductions in the second half of 2012. MTN said revenue growth also improved after hitting a low point in September last year, and ARPU in local currency was stable. The company estimates its market share in Nigeria rose by 2 percent points to 49.7 percent. Despite the recently announced sharper-than-expected reduction in mobile termination rates‚ MTN expects that the market will return to robust revenue growth by the start of the fourth quarter 2013. This is helped by growth in data subscribers, which rose to 22.8 million in the period, driving a 63.5 percent annual increase in data revenue in local currency. MTN also expanded its network in the quarter, adding 450 new 2G sites and 259 co-located 3G sites.
Source: Telecompaper
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