Last Updated- Oct 30, 2009 7:20 - - 0 Comments


MTN Africa subscriber list hits 108.4m

mtnAfrica’s biggest mobile operator MTN boosted subscribers by 5 percent in the third quarter thanks to strong growth in key markets Nigeria and Iran, and expects zero subscriber growth for the year in its local operation.
The company, which operates mobile phone networks across Africa and the Middle East, said it had 108.4 million subscribers at the end of September, compared to 103.2 million at the end of the second quarter.

In Nigeria, Africa’s most populous nation and MTN’s biggest market, subscribers rose 5 percent to 28.7 million. MTN’s Iran unit, launched in late 2006, boosted subscribers by 8 percent to 20.7 million. Its customer base in its second-biggest market, South Africa, declined to 16.4 million from 17.2 million, hit by the implementation of subscriber registration by the South African government.

“MTN has revised its subscriber net addition guidance for the year for South Africa to zero,” the company said.

Shares in MTN were down 0.85 percent at 117 rand, lagging a 0.55 percent firmer JSE Top-40 index of blue-chips.

“The numbers are not different from expectations. They are in line with most people’s expectations. What people are actually looking at is ARPU (average revenue per user) more than subscribers, especially in South Africa where interconnect rates are coming down,” said Jan Meintjes, a telecoms analyst at Gryphon Asset Management.

MTN South Africa’s blended ARPU rose marginally by 1 percent to 138 rand, due to negative net connection of 750,000. ARPU is a telecoms tool to measure how much each subscriber spends on cellphone calls and sending data.

ARPU’s in Nigeria, Ghana, Iran and Syria have remained relatively stable for the quarter.

In South Africa, MTN and its rival Vodacom are faced by regulatory hurdles such as investigation on price collusion by competition watchdog. The South African government also wants interconnection fees to be cut to 60 cents per minute during peak times by November.

In Ghana, MTN’s fourth-biggest market, subscribers grew by 2.6 percent to 7.4 million, and in Afghanistan MTN has moved into No. 1 position from being No. 3 at the beginning of the year, as users rose 11.7 percent to 2.9 million.

Source: Reuters

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