MTN South Africa Losses 1.9 Million Subscribers In 6 Months
Telecommunication company MTN has published its interim financial results for the six months that ended on June 30th.
The half-year results show positive growth in revenue in the different categories.
However, the results have also shown the JSE listed company subscriber base shrunk. The company lost about two million prepaid subscribers over the period.
The decline is subscriber base means that MTN now has 29.2 million subscribers in South Africa.
Speaking while presenting the results, Group CEO Rob Shuter did state that the firm has experienced tough trading times in South Africa.
“A combination of changes in the acquisition strategy in consumer postpaid as well as the discontinuation of the 1GB acquisition promotion in prepaid… resulted in a 1.9 million decrease in the subscriber base from December 2018 – to a closing subscriber base of 29.2 million.”
The Group CEO highlighted several reasons that may have led to the decline in subscriber numbers, one of them being adjustments made on data pricing. Notably, he also mentioned South Africa’s economic situation was among the key factors that lead to the considerable decline in the subscriber base.
“We have had a challenging first half in South Africa,” Shuter said. “We had our famous 1GB promotion, which we decided was not generating value and we pulled it out of the market.”
“A lot of those SIMs have since become dormant and contributed to the drop in prepaid users,” he added.
The telecom made a profit of ZAR 4.43 Bn during the period, up 1.2 per cent from ZAR 4.38 bn profits reported during the same period last year.
Revenue for the first half increased to ZAR 72.51 Bn this year from ZAR 62.78 Bn last year. Service revenue grew 9.7 per cent, the company said.
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