Vodacom aims to get more people using data on its network in a bid to stave off declining voice revenue and has a three-pronged strategy it believes will increase MB of use.
The group, which has 61 million customers in its five operations, this morning said group data revenue gained 24.7% as active data customers grew 27.6% to 25.9 million in the first half of the year. Mobile data accounted for R7.6 billion of its R30.7 billion in service revenue.
Vodacom, which is on track to invest R8.5 billion in the full-year to increase capacity and coverage, sees expanding broadband across its network as one of the data drivers. It is also making devices more affordable through its relationship with parent company Vodafone and has introduced a sub-$50 smartphone and a tablet that is available for less than R1 000.
It is also pushing content to drive data use. CEO Shameel Joosub notes its launch of Deezer resulted in a more than 75% increase in data traffic locally.
Continued spending
Locally, the company invested R4.1 billion into its network, which it says supported an 18% increase in outgoing voice traffic and 75% increase in data traffic. "This investment also positions us well to capitalise on data demand which is expected to accelerate as the penetration of smart devices increases."
During the period, Vodacom also wrapped up a six-year project to replace all of its base station radio equipment across the country. This means it is "4G-ready country-wide and just needs access to sufficient spectrum to make it operational".
In South Africa, it added 1 000 new long-term evolution (LTE) base stations - doubling the base - and 745 new 3G sites. Joosub notes 99.9% of the South African population is now covered with 2G, although he quips: "I'm sure there is somewhere in the Karoo we have not covered."
Vodacom's local 3G coverage is now at 94.1% and it saw a 17.4% increase in data customers. Over the past year, data costs have gone down an effective 30% on Vodacom's network, says Joosub.
Internationally, its data customer base gained 20% and outgoing voice traffic increased 60% and data traffic more than doubled. "This once again highlights the importance of continued investment in network capacity as we increased the number of 3G sites by 44% and the number of 2G sites by 30%," it says.
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