MTN and Airtel invest N443b in six months
By Jeph Ajobaju, Chief Copy Editor
Telecom market leader MTN and closest rival Airtel have invested a combined N443.3 billion in infrastructure this year to improve 4G and 5G services and retain their slots among the big four players that include Globacom and 9Mobile.
MTN and Mafab Communications already announced plans to launch 5G this month.
Both MTN and Airtel disclosed the investment in their financial reports for half year 2022 (H1 2022). MTN invested N311.6 billion and Airtel N131.70 billion ($307 million).
“Capital expenditure in the period was N311.6bn, up by 67.1 per cent, due to accelerated coverage expansion, focusing on the 4G and 5G networks as well as our rural telephony programme,” MTN said.
“Core capex, excluding the right of use assets, increased by 78.6 per cent to N204.5bn.
“We frontloaded some of our planned capex for the year in H1 to capture growth opportunities while mitigating foreign exchange and supply chain disruption risks as well as the impact of rising inflation.
“As a result, capex intensity increased by 7pp to 21.5 per cent, temporarily exceeding our target levels.”
MTN has deployed 127 5G sites and 4,984 4G sites, according to its report, quoted by The PUNCH.
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Airtel focuses on greater smartphone penetration
Airtel disclosed in its Q1 2022 report that “the Group continued to invest in the expansion of our 4G network, adding significant data capacity to the network at only marginal cost, expanding both home broadband and enterprise business services to greater leverage the 4G network capacity; growing data ARPU and data revenue.
“We continue to focus on increasing smartphone ownership and increasing data usage at scale, largely via smartphone offerings through Original Equipment Manufacturer device partnerships, and through expanding our network of smartphone device selling outlets.
“Our improved 4G network supported our drive to increase smartphone penetration, data customer penetration and the uptake of larger data volumes, resulting in greater data consumption per customer.
“Smartphone penetration was up by 1.2 percentage point to 34.2 per cent and our data customer base grew by 15.2 per cent, now representing 36.4 per cent of our total customer base.”
The two telcos said their business faces challenges such as rising inflation, scarcity of foreign exchange, supply chain disruptions, and higher diesel and petrol prices that add to financial pressure on customers.
