Vodacom 3Q Customers Rise 4.7% On Quarter To 33 Million

JOHANNESBURG -(Dow Jones)- Vodacom Group, South Africa's largest mobile phone operator, Tuesday reported a 4.7% rise in the number of customers across its networks to 33 million during its financial third quarter.

For the nine months to the end of December, Vodacom said its subscriber base had grown slightly more than 17% on the year, while revenue increase 17% to 35.7 billion rand ($5 billion).

The company, equally owned by South Africa's Telkom SA and the Vodafone Group, operates networks in its home country, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Lesotho, Mozambique and Tanzania.

In South Africa, Vodacom said its customer base increased 4.1% since Sept. 30 to 24.3 million, reflecting a 0.7% rise in contract customers and 4.7% improvement in prepaid customers. Average revenue per user increased 3.4% on the quarter to ZAR123.

It said it retained its leadership position in the highly competitive South African market with an estimated almost 56% share.

Vodacom said outside South Africa, its operations increased their total customer base 6.3% to 8.8 million on the previous three months.

-By Robb M. Stewart, Dow Jones Newswires; +27 11 783 7848; robb.stewart@dowjones.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

Posted to the site on 29th January 2008