MTN Group has announced that it has reached the milestone of 100-million active data users on its networks across Africa
and the Middle East.
“We believe that everyone deserves the benefits of a modern connected life,” says MTN Group president and CEO Rob Shuter.
“We are delighted to have connected 100 million of our customers to the power of the internet as we have increased data coverage and reduced the cost to communicate across our markets.”
MTN
has a total base of more than 257-million
customers in 21 markets. It says growth through scaling data and digital
services is central to its strategy. The group is overcoming the
barriers to greater mobile internet adoption by extending its 3G and 4G coverage, accelerating smartphone adoption and
transforming prices.
In the past three years, well over 100-million more people in MTN’s
footprint have been covered by its data network. This
brings the group’s potential network coverage for data services to more
than 480-million people. However, about 60% of rural populations in
Africa remain unconnected. To benefit from connectivity, they need
affordable devices as well as the digital literacy
to easily access relevant and meaningful content.
To support smartphone adoption, in 2019 MTN
distributed 675,000 affordable data-enabled handsets across 12 markets.
It
also launched a digital literacy programme in nine markets, helping over
three million people improve their understanding of the mobile internet and applications.
Data affordability is also key. In 2018 and 2019, MTN
reduced entry-level data rates across its footprint by an average
of 60%. In 2019, it cut the effective data price per megabyte by an
average of 34%. However, this did not necessarily apply to ad hoc data
used by low-income users.
“We
believe the consumer mobile data market will grow enormously over the
next few years,” says Shuter. “The COVID-19 pandemic
has served to accelerate the adoption of mobile data, digital services
and financial services. As a result, we have recorded increases of up to
50% in data volumes in some markets, as work and studying from home
becomes a reality for many.
“Over time our ambition is to grow our customer base to 300 million and for at least 2/3 to be accessing the power of the
internet on an MTN network – so the 100 million achieved today marks the halfway mark in the MTN journey.”
