Telkom's cellular arm, 8ta, has seen 11 000 people ditch land-lines in favour of the mobile offering, because of ongoing cable theft issues.
8ta, which launched in October 2010, had 1.14 million active subscribers at the end of September 2011.
Senior managing executive, Amith Maharaj, says the growth is meeting Telkom's expectations as 8ta has seen a strong performance on postpaid, and its offerings have been “very well” received.
More than 11 000 customers that have been affected by recurring cable theft have been migrated to mobile telephony services on the 8ta network, says Maharaj. He explains this is helping Telkom sustain voice revenue.
Telkom incurred losses of R183.5 million linked to cable theft in the last financial year, as 354 732 people were affected by service outages as a result. Telkom said, in it latest annual report, that incidents had increased by 17%.
Vital component
The company also noted that the growth in revenue from its data segment is slowing as consumers become more cost-conscious. Data revenue declined 7.9%, to R5.114 billion, although ADSL subscribers increased 13.7%, to 795 419.
Richard Hurst, Ovum's emerging markets analyst, says 8ta has an “aggressive land grab” strategy and its mobile data prices are “compelling”. He says a mobile play is vital in this environment, and 8ta's offerings are cheaper than Telkom's ADSL services.
Maharaj declined to provide growth targets, or indicate what the company's future strategy would entail.
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