Cellular telephone services provider Vodacom, in which partially privatised telecommunications giant Telkom has a 50% stake, has surpassed the 10-million customer mark.
The country’s biggest mobile communications group revealed on Wednesday in a quarterly update to the end of December that at the end of 2003 it had 10,2-million customers on its networks operated in South Africa and other African countries, a 6,2% increase in the three months since September 30 2003.
Vodacom’s international operations comprised approximately 1,3-million, or 12,7%, of the customer base. Vodacom South Africa increased its customer base by 4,6% since September 30 2003 to 8,9-million customers. This consists of 1,3-million contract customers and 7,6-million prepaid customers, with increases of 6,6% and 4,3% since September 30 2003 respectively.
Vodacom International increased its customer base by 19,1% since September 30 2003 to 1,3-million customers. Vodacom Mozambique, which only started commercial operations in December 2003, already had 15 815 customers by December 31 2003. — I-Net Bridge