South African telecommunications group Telkom (TKGJ.J) announced on Monday (16) that its operating profit in the third quarter increased 8.4% year-on-year, supported by cost-cutting measures and 7.2% growth in mobile service revenues.
According to Reuters, TKGJ.J’s mobile service revenue growth continued to outpace the overall domestic market, reinforcing its position as the fastest-growing mobile operator among major competitors such as Vodacom (VODJ.J) and MTN (MTNJ.J).
Telkom attributed part of this momentum to its strategy of marketing aggressive prepaid data offers designed to increase volumes while keeping services affordable for price-sensitive consumers.
The state-owned company reported that adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) rose to $200.96 million, with EBITDA margin expanding to 29.1% in the three months to December 31, compared to the same period last year.
The group’s data revenues, which represent 61.6% of the total, grew by 9.6%, while mobile data revenues increased by 12.9%, driven by strong growth in subscribers and mobile internet service traffic, which contributed to the expansion of mobile service revenues. Fiber data-related billings increased by 8.9%, the company reported.
The number of mobile subscribers exceeded 25 million customers, with mobile data subscribers growing by 29.3% to 19.3 million customers, “due to customized value-focused plans,” according to Telkom.
Prepaid service revenues grew 11.6%. At Openserve (the division responsible for the fiber and fixed broadband network, its fiber business), revenues increased 2.2%, supported by the continued monetization of the fiber network.
