MTN, Africa’s largest mobile operator, said in a statement it had 203.8 million subscribers at the end of September, from 201.5 million three months earlier.
MTN, which operates in 22 countries in Africa and the Middle East, said the number of subscribers in Nigeria, Africa’s most populous country, increased by 0.6 percent to 55.6 million.
“The third quarter has been characterised by lower-than-anticipated subscriber growth following ongoing price competition and subscriber registration requirements across a number of markets,” CEO Sifiso Dabengwa said in a statement.
MTN said conditions would remain challenging in its home market of South Africa, where it faces tough competition from local rivals Vodacom and unlisted Cell C.
South Africa’s telecoms regulator said this month it planned to cut by 75 percent the fees mobile operators can charge rivals to use their network.
Analysts have said the change would be a blow to MTN’s revenue. The company said it continued to discuss the proposed changes with the regulator.
MTN said the number of South African subscribers increased by just under 1 percent to 25.2 million.
Iran saw a decrease of 1.7 percent to 41.3 million, hurt by a weakening economy and an increased push by MTN’s main competitor.
Shares of MTN fell 1.2 percent to 198.78 rand, underperforming a 0.3 percent increase in the benchmark Top-40 index.
No comments:
Post a Comment