{"id":40191,"date":"2022-11-14T16:31:59","date_gmt":"2022-11-14T16:31:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/vodacom-spends-record-r5-8bn-on-sa-network-as-it-battles-load-shedding"},"modified":"2022-11-14T17:38:58","modified_gmt":"2022-11-14T17:38:58","slug":"vodacom-spends-record-r5-8bn-on-sa-network-as-it-battles-load-shedding","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/vodacom-spends-record-r5-8bn-on-sa-network-as-it-battles-load-shedding","title":{"rendered":"Vodacom spends record R5.8bn on SA network as it battles load shedding"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – South-Africa. <\/strong><\/span>SA’s largest mobile operator Vodacom, which has been battling power challenges and the effects of rising inflation, says it spent a record R5.8 billion on its local network in its half year, including on batteries, as it sought to ensure a more resilient network for customers.<\/p>\n

The firm said it had now spent more than R2 billion on batteries alone for the past two years, and its network spend, along with new products, helped underpin a 4.9% in revenue to R41.2 billion in its largest market during its half-year.<\/p>\n

However, group headline earnings per share fell 9.5% to R4.57 in the six months to end-September, with the firm taking a hit from launching mobile services in Ethiopia, as well as higher finance costs as its debt climbed.<\/p>\n

Vodacom CEO Shameel Joosub said the network investment came “at a time when the country experienced record levels of power outages” and put measures to absorb the pressures faced by customers.<\/p>\n

“Vodacom has attempted to absorb considerable inflationary costs from the dramatic increase in energy costs as far as possible,” said Joosub.<\/p>\n

To counter the effect of the country’s energy crisis, Vodacom is piloting a programme that would see it source its electricity from renewable independent power producers and also add the power to the national grid.<\/p>\n

Measures such as battery deployment to towers to support network resilience during load shedding contributed to increased group total expenses by 13% to R33.7 billion.<\/p>\n

In SA, expenses increased 8.7% to R25.5 billion, impacted by higher costs from equipment sales. The company said the expenses came from higher fuel and energy costs and higher technology and network costs.<\/p>\n

Vodacom’s SA operations grew service revenue 3% to R29.5 billion in the first half of the year, with a rise in smartphone penetration supporting growth in data traffic, the company’s financial results released on Monday showed.<\/p>\n

Data traffic was up 30.3%, with 800 000 new users bringing its total to 23.8 million customers.<\/p>\n

Click here for details of Vodacom’s shares and other info.<\/p>\n

Smart devices were up by 11.8% to 27.6 million, while 4G and 5G devices increased by 24.1% to 20.3 million. The average usage per smart device increased by 24% to 2.8GB per month.<\/p>\n

“The data revenue growth reflects the high adoption of our data-led bundles, which offer lower rates to the most price-sensitive, lower-income consumers,” said Joosub.<\/p>\n

Group service revenue increased 7.2% to R41.7 billion, supported by the local Vodacom operations, which contribute 80% to the company’s earnings.<\/p>\n

The startup costs associated with the recent launch of Safaricom Ethiopia, in which Vodacom holds a minority stake, contributed to a decline in earnings, and along with a spend on SA spectrum ensured net debt climbed R6.6 billion to R44.6 billion. Finance costs climbed almost at third to R2.19 billion.<\/p>\n

Joosub said the network had already launched in 16 cities in Ethiopia with plans to expand services to 25 cities by April 2023, to reach its first milestone of 25% population coverage.<\/p>\n

In midday trade on Monday Vodacom’s shares had slipped 4.5% to R123.06, having fallen about 8.7% so far in 2022.<\/p>\n

For More News And Analysis About South-Africa<\/a> Follow Africa-Press<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – South-Africa. SA’s largest mobile operator Vodacom, which has been battling power challenges and the effects of rising inflation, says it spent a record R5.8 billion on its local network in its half year, including on batteries, as it sought to ensure a more resilient network for customers. The firm said it had now […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":40190,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,5],"tags":[274,315,269,3186,1389,3918,275,1428],"class_list":["post-40191","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-economy","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-south-africa","tag-data","tag-financial-results","tag-mobile","tag-network","tag-south-africa-2","tag-vodacom"],"yoast_head":"\nVodacom spends record R5.8bn on SA network as it battles load shedding - South Africa<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"SA's largest mobile operator Vodacom, which has been battling power challenges and the effects of rising inflation, says ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/vodacom-spends-record-r5-8bn-on-sa-network-as-it-battles-load-shedding\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Vodacom spends record R5.8bn on SA network as it battles load shedding\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"SA's largest mobile operator Vodacom, which has been battling power challenges and the effects of rising inflation, says ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/vodacom-spends-record-r5-8bn-on-sa-network-as-it-battles-load-shedding\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"South Africa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2022-11-14T16:31:59+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-11-14T17:38:58+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/sites\/31\/2022\/11\/postQueueImg_1668430925.61.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1024\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"684\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/vodacom-spends-record-r5-8bn-on-sa-network-as-it-battles-load-shedding#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/vodacom-spends-record-r5-8bn-on-sa-network-as-it-battles-load-shedding\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Vodacom spends record R5.8bn on SA network as it battles load shedding\",\"datePublished\":\"2022-11-14T16:31:59+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-11-14T17:38:58+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/vodacom-spends-record-r5-8bn-on-sa-network-as-it-battles-load-shedding\"},\"wordCount\":524,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/vodacom-spends-record-r5-8bn-on-sa-network-as-it-battles-load-shedding#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/sites\/31\/2022\/11\/postQueueImg_1668430925.61.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Africa Press\",\"Africa Press-South-Africa\",\"DATA\",\"financial results\",\"mobile\",\"network\",\"South-Africa\",\"vodacom\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"economy\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/vodacom-spends-record-r5-8bn-on-sa-network-as-it-battles-load-shedding#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/vodacom-spends-record-r5-8bn-on-sa-network-as-it-battles-load-shedding\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/vodacom-spends-record-r5-8bn-on-sa-network-as-it-battles-load-shedding\",\"name\":\"Vodacom spends record R5.8bn on SA network as it battles load shedding - 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