MTN revels in N568b revenue, as active subscriber base rises by 1.7m
By Jeph Ajobaju, Chief Copy Editor
Data for the first time fetched more money for MTN than voice in the first quarter of the year to March (Q1 2023), landing the network with N568 billion revenue as subscribers lapped up its 4G and 5G expansions to consume more data.
Data revenue surged 40 per cent, voice did 7.3 per cent
And the telco market leader broke the ceiling in data revenue which pushed its total revenue to N568 billion, a 20.6 per cent growth year-on-year (YoY) from N470.9 billion in Q1 2022.
Voice had been the main revenue driver for all telecom operators in Nigeria, but a 40 per cent growth in data revenue in Q1 2023 saw MTN flip the tables for the first time.
Its data revenue reached 227.8 billion, voice came in with N277.6 billion.
Impact of 5G, 4G expansion
The rise in data revenue is attributed to MTN’s rollout of 5G late last year and the expansion of its 4G network, both of which drive more data consumption at a higher speed.
MTN Nigeria Chief Executive Officer Karl Toriola confirmed this in his comments on the Q1 financial statement.
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Active subscriber base rises by 1.7m
“Active data subscribers rose by 1.7 million, benefitting from our efforts to drive data conversion in new and existing subscribers. During the quarter, we focused on enhancing the capacity and coverage of our 4G and 5G networks, which supported rising data traffic,” Toriola explained, per Nairametrics.
“Our total data traffic increased by 50.3%, while 4G traffic constitutes 81.6% (up by 5.5pp).
“In addition, we rolled out additional 170 5G sites in Q1, bringing the population coverage to 4% and expanding the network experience to more smartphone users.”
Toriola said the 40 per cent increase in data revenue came from sustained growth in active data users and increased data usage.
“This was enabled by our sustained investment in our networks to drive 4G and 5G coverage and enhance the quality and capacity of the network to support the rising data traffic.
“As a result, our 4G network now covers 79.3% of the population, up from 79.1% in December 2022, and data usage (GB per user) grew by 31.3% to 7.8GB.
Increase in smartphone penetration
“In addition, we added over 804k new smartphones to our network in Q1, bringing smartphone penetration to 52.7%.
“We continued to advance our home broadband penetration by adding 169k users in Q1, bringing our user base to 1.4 million. This was supported by deploying our 5G fixed wireless access devices, mobile broadband solutions and fiber-to-the-home connectivity,” Toriola stressed.
Backstory
MTN in November 2022 predicted that with the rate at which its data revenue was growing it would soon overtake voice as its main source of revenue.
“The contribution of voice to total revenue has been coming down while the contribution of data has been going up. So, we will see their convergence soon. We expect that data will overtake voice at some point in the near future,” Toriola said at the time.
“As of April 2017, voice contribution was 70%, but today, it has gone down.
“Between the next 18 to 36 months, data will overtake voice in terms of revenue contribution and this will be driven by factors such as the increase in smartphone penetration and the uptake of 5G.”
“The contribution of voice to total revenue has been coming down while the contribution of data has been going up. So, we will see their convergence soon. We expect that data will overtake voice at some point in the near future,” Toriola said at the time.
“As of April 2017, voice contribution was 70%, but today, it has gone down.
“Between the next 18 to 36 months, data will overtake voice in terms of revenue contribution and this will be driven by factors such as the increase in smartphone penetration and the uptake of 5G.”