Despite a significant 13.1 percent drop in its prepaid customer base, Vodacom South Africa, the nation’s top mobile network operator, reported a 3.5 percent increase in prepaid mobile customer revenue, reaching R27.3 billion ($1.51 billion) for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2025.
According to the company’s annual financial results, which were made public on Monday, its prepaid subscribers fell from approximately 44.85 million to 39 million, representing a loss of roughly 5.7 million customers.
Even though Vodacom had trouble keeping customers, this performance shows that it was still able to increase revenue through strategic rate management and increased data consumption.
The telecom giant attributes the notable decline in its prepaid customer base to deactivating inactive subscribers and optimising gross additions. The goal of this “clean-up” strategy was to develop a client base that was more active and profitable.
Vodacom South Africa’s Q4 revenue increases by 4% despite 5.7 customers’ loss
The company’s financial results improved despite the loss of millions of subscribers, as prepaid mobile customer revenue increased over the prior year. Prepaid revenue grew by 4 percent in the fourth quarter, which was a particularly noteworthy increase.
However, this growth was marginally less than the 5.6 percent growth in the third quarter, which was partially caused by a leap-year effect in the previous year.
The average revenue per user (ARPU) for prepaid customers increased by 12.2 percent in the fourth quarter, to R55, which was the main factor driving the revenue increase.
Vodacom attributed this improvement to a concentrated effort to manage rates while keeping data affordable, which incentivised its remaining users to spend more.
Vodacom South Africa’s data revenue increases by 12% to R14.2 billion
Prepaid mobile data revenues increased 12 percent to R14.2 billion ($786.89 million) as a result of the spike in mobile data consumption.
The overall data traffic for the year increased by 36.4 percent, with an even greater spike of 39.4 percent in the fourth quarter, supporting this growth.
Increased smartphone adoption and improved network quality served as the foundation for Vodacom’s success in increasing data-related revenue. With 4G and 5G devices increasing by 3.1 percent to 24.4 million, the company reported a 1.5 percent increase in smart devices to 32.3 million.
The average monthly data usage per smart device increased by 31.7 percent to 5.1GB, indicating South African consumers’ increasing reliance on mobile data.
This growth was aided by Vodacom’s significant network infrastructure investments, which came to R11.6 billion in FY 2025, and improved IT platforms, new spectrum assets, and resilience.
To further improve its network capabilities, the company plans to increase its capital expenditure to at least R12.0 billion in the upcoming fiscal year.
152,000 new subscribers’ additions drove 3.8% increase in contract customer revenues to R24.4 billion
Positive changes were also observed in Vodacom’s contract customer base outside of its prepaid segment. Strategic price increases and the addition of 152,000 new subscribers drove a 3.8 percent increase in contract customer revenues to R24.4 billion.
However, Vodacom Business spending pressures, where corporate clients controlled costs more closely, partially offset price hikes, resulting in a modest 1.7 percent increase in the mobile contract ARPU to R306.
With a 10 percent growth to R11.2 billion and a 17.8 percent contribution to total service revenues, Vodacom’s financial, digital, fixed, and IoT service revenues also showed impressive performance.
Particularly in the financial services sector, the adoption of insurance products, Airtime Advance, payments, and lending marketplace businesses drove a 7.9 percent increase in revenue to R3.4 billion. With 198,000 homes and businesses connected and Vodacom’s own fibre passing close to 166,000 locations, fixed service revenue—which does not include low-margin wholesale transit—rose 17.9 percent.
Vodacom business revenue fell by 2.3% to R16.9 billion
Vodacom Business encountered difficulties despite the overall strong financial performance; its service revenue fell 2.3 percent to R16.9 billion. Pressures on wholesale revenue and a challenging comparison period from the prior year were blamed for this decline.
A bright spot, though, was the rise in cloud, hosting, and security services, where revenues increased by an astounding 35.6 percent. The difficulties in this division were highlighted by the fact that the reset in wholesale revenues reduced the growth in overall service revenue by 1.9 percentage points.
Vodacom South Africa’s overall service revenue climbed 2.3% to R63 billion
In FY 2025, Vodacom South Africa’s service revenue climbed 2.3% to R63 billion, demonstrating the company’s resilience in a cutthroat industry.
Operating profit increased by 2.1 percent to R20.547 billion, while earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, and amortisation (EBITDA) also increased by 2.3 percent to R33.567 billion.
Vodacom moderated its investment in energy resilience as South Africa’s electrical grid stabilised, allowing these gains to be achieved despite macroeconomic obstacles like inflation and past energy crises.
Shameel Joosub, CEO of Vodacom Group, emphasised the company’s strategic emphasis on financial services and connectivity, saying, “Our improved performance in South Africa was underpinned by successful seasonal campaigns, an improved consumer environment in the prepaid segment, and a 40.6 percent increase in data traffic.”
In addition, Joosub emphasised the company’s larger goals in posts on X that celebrated Vodacom’s 211.3 million customers throughout Africa and its 5.1 percent increase in full-year dividends to 620 cents per share, with a final dividend of 335 cents due on June 23, 2025.
