Telkom’s data strategy pays off as mobile users jump 29%

Stephen Grootes speaks to Lunga Siyo, CEO of Telkom Consumer & Small Business about the telecoms latest results, which show a marked improvement in earnings as the group continues to shift its revenue mix toward mobile and fibre.

Listen to the interview in the audio player below.

Telkom delivered a strong third-quarter performance, driven largely by rising demand for mobile data and fibre connectivity, as the group continues to position itself as a key player in South Africa’s digital economy.

The numbers reflect solid growth in mobile service revenue, rising data usage, and continued expansion of fibre connections, offsetting ongoing declines in legacy fixed-line voice services. 

For the quarter ended December, Telkom reported that data revenue increased by 9.6% to R6.86 billion and now accounts for about 60% of total group revenue. Year-to-date, data revenue is up 8.5%, underlining the company’s shift toward a data-led business model.

Mobile data was the biggest contributor to growth, rising 12.9%, while fibre-related data revenue climbed 8.9%. Overall mobile service revenue increased 7.2% during the quarter and 7.6% year-to-date, supported by strong prepaid performance and sustained demand for mobile internet services.

Telkom’s mobile base now exceeds 25 million users, while mobile data subscribers surged 29.3% to 19.3 million. Fibre adoption also continued to expand, with nearly 786,500 homes connected and a connectivity rate of 52.4%.

Speaking to Stephen Grootes on The Money Show, Lunga Siyo, CEO of Telkom Consumer & Small Business says they're keeping up with consumer demands by offering the cheapest data deals, as the demand for internet connectivity continues to grow.

"These days, 76% of our customers are data customers...most of it comes off the back of prepaid subscribers that have grown..."

- Lunga Siyo, CEO - Telkom Consumer & Small Business

"For us it's beyond market share. It's really growing the share of the wallet. South Africa is a really saturated market. People are multi-simmed in essence, so you really want to go into the share of the wallet."

- Lunga Siyo, CEO - Telkom Consumer & Small Business

"If you could convince customers to spend more with you than the other players, you'd actually be winning. But you also have figure out what it is that customers are really looking for, and we think data is quite key, both fibre and mobile."

- Lunga Siyo, CEO - Telkom Consumer & Small Business

Scroll to the top of the article to listen to the full interview.