SA's largest cellular operator, Vodacom, added 1.9 million customers to its base in the three months to June, the bulk of which came from its local operation.
The gain is despite two network outages in recent months that left many subscribers unable to make calls for extended periods.
During the quarter, Vodacom grew revenue 8.1% and bolstered its subscriber base to 45.4 million, a 20.4% gain.
The group attributes its growth to its “brand refresh”. Vodacom has earmarked R400 million to change colours from blue to red, mirroring parent company Vodafone's image, and improve customer experience.
Data revenue grew 37.6% and there was a 43.3% increase in active data customers, which now make up 10.9 million of Vodacom's total subscriber base.
Vodacom's international operations, in Tanzania, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Lesotho and Mozambique, grew customers 21.5%.
In SA, revenue moved 7.7% higher and 1.2 million customers were added in the three months. Vodacom reported a 16.3% year-on-year increase in average minutes of use, which helped offset an average lower price per minute.
Not all good
CEO Pieter Uys says “not everything went our way this quarter”, as the company “unfortunately experienced some outages in our South African network”.
The financial impact was “minimal”, but the “negative impact on the customer experience was not acceptable”, notes Uys.
Vodacom has since installed more fibre capacity and upgraded certain software to avoid future disruptions, adds Uys. “Our number one priority over the coming months is to ensure that our customers get the best possible network experience.”
Vodacom experienced two outages in the quarter: one in May and another at the end of June. The first, it previously said, may have been the work of saboteurs.
June's outage, which affected subscribers in selected spots across the country, was caused by a multiple failure of transmission system equipment, the company explained.
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