Telkom’s group revenue increased by 2.6% for the quarter, driven by robust group data revenue growth of 8.8%. This growth was primarily driven by an 11.4% rise in mobile data revenue and 4% growth in fibre-related data revenue.
Telkom delivered a strong first-quarter performance, with its data-led strategy driving revenue growth across its mobile, fibre and ICT businesses.
Group data revenue increased 8.8% to R6.9 billion, accounting for 62.4% of total revenue. Mobile service revenue grew 6.4%, driven by a 9.1% increase in prepaid service revenue, while the mobile subscriber base expanded 6.1% to 25.3 million.
Data subscribers rose 15.5% to 19.8 million. The company’s earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) margin expanded to 27.7%, supported by double-digit EBITDA growth.
This expansion was driven by cost discipline initiatives and solid revenue growth. Serame Taukobong, group chief executive officer of Telkom, notes that the company commenced the new financial year with strong data-led growth supported by mobile and Openserve.
Openserve continued its positive momentum, with revenue increasing 5.6%.
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BCX reported stable IT services revenue growth of 0.3% despite a challenging market. Within BCX, cyber security revenue surged 36.6% and cloud services grew 11.8%.
Telkom invested R888 million in capital expenditure, primarily in its mobile business and Openserve. This investment was mainly directed towards expanding network capacity and upgrading base stations.
As a result, 84 sites were added during the quarter, increasing the network footprint of mobile to 8 504 base stations. The company also invested in IT transformation and the upgrade of business support systems (BSS) and digital platforms.
Openserve invested R379 million in capex during the period to modernise and expand its network, passing 26 541 homes.
Service revenue for the mobile business grew by 6.4% supported by prepaid service revenue growth of 9.1%.
Telkom’s data-led strategy is driving growth in enterprise deployments, with the company investing in network expansion and IT transformation.