South African mobile network operator Vodacom lost almost 400,000 subscribers in the period between the start of April 2022 and the end of June 2022, according to its 2022 Q2 financial results.
However, despite the drop in its subscribers count, which the network operator attributed to a challenging macro backdrop of higher food and fuel inflation and delays to social grant payments, Vodacom saw its prepaid customer revenue increase by 1.7% to R6.2 billion (approximately $364 million).
The company also saw its mobile contract customer revenue increase by 5.8% to R5.5 billion. Vodacom’s mobile contract customer base also increased by 52,000 subscribers with average revenue per user (ARPU) also increasing by 0.7% to R294 per user. This is despite the increased contract pricing by between 3% – 5% reflecting inflationary cost pressures.
Regarding internet usage on its network, Vodacom recorded a data traffic growth of 30.2% in the quarter with data customers up by 8.6% to 23 million. Smart device usage on the Vodacom network was up by 11.5% to 26.4 million while the number of 4G devices also increased by 11.3% to 18.2 million. The average data usage per smart device increased by 25.2% to 2.7GB per month.
Vodacom Business, which is the B2B unit of the Vodacom Group consisting of enterprise fixed and mobile, internet of things (IoT), cloud and hosting, wholesale and carrier services and security businesses, saw its revenue increase by 2.5% to R4.3 billion (approximately $252 million), supported by what Vodacom termed “sustained demand for mobile connectivity and IoT revenue.”
After pulling the plug on its live streaming app Video Play at the beginning of July in favour of VodaPay, a lifestyle super app launched in October last year, Vodacom saw the super app continue its impressive adoption rate with 2.8 million downloads and 1.9 million registered users by quarter end.
In summary of the 2022 Q2 financial results, Vodacom stated that it was fully cognizant of the financial constraints on customers caused by global economic uncertainty and increased inflation and remained committed to delivering innovations that enhance the value for customers and help them to alleviate the cost of living pressures.
