1.1 mln customers lost by Vodacom in December quarter

www.WirelessFederation.com/news: With 9.5% increase last year, African mobile operator Vodacom’s mobile customer base reached 40.5 million. Due to the RICA rules in South Africa and a change in disconnection policy in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Vodacom lost a net 1.1 million customers versus September.

The decline was entirely due to prepaid losses, while the contract base grew by 190,000 to 4.349 million.

Quarterly revenues were up 6 percent year-on-year to ZAR 15.425 billion while the Vodafone subsidiary saw 7.5 percent annual growth in quarterly revenue. Traffic in South Africa was up 4.0 percent year-on-year and down 1.3 percent from the previous quarter to 6.655 billion minutes, while ARPU of ZAR 140 was stable year-on-year and up from ZAR 125 in the September quarter.