By Staff Reporter
WINDHOEK – The national mobile network operator, MTC, says it is prepared for the data demand tsunami that will arise over the next 3 to 5 years, with on-going investments in infrastructure.
“All the tremendous investments and efforts in terms of infrastructural improvements, the submarine cable, the national fibre backbone, the advanced 3G Single RAN and the 4GLTE radio networks, as well as the migrated IP core systems, are evident in the delivery of excellent mobile bandwidth,” said Miguel Geraldes Managing Director of MTC, speaking in Windhoek on Friday. He said MTC has a clear strategy to maintain the current customer base and ensure 60 percent of new activations with customer offerings, which have led to good financial results in the 2012/13 fiscal year. Revenue grew 13.3 percent to N$1.8 billion compared to N$1.6 billion in 2012, with contributions from both revenue groups – post and pre-paid. Looking at the data volume usage produced on MTC’s network, a constant increase of usage is apparent, he said. According to him it is also noteworthy that the growth is 1.3 fold, comparing volume usage from September 2013 to September 2012. With that, MTC surpassed one quarter of revenue generated from data, underpinning the stream revenue direction migration from voice to data. Geraldes also commented on Namibia’s high mobile penetration rate, which is currently more than 100 percent, a commendable result that can only be equated to South Africa, Botswana and Gabon on the continent.
The financial results of MTC Namibia indicate continued performance improvement as it passes the 2.2 million customer landmark supported by strong mobile data growth, the company announced on Friday. The strong control of operating expenses resulted in a growth of 17.2 percent from 11 percent achieved in the previous year in the EBITDA (Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation and Amortization) margin. The EBITDA margin remained above 50 percent as from 2011, as EBITDA grew from N$859.4 million to N$1007.0 million as a result of proper implementation of cost management policies.
MTC reinvested 101 percent of net profit after tax to renew the radio access network and to provide its own transmission to reduce network running costs. Net profit after tax increased from N$353 million to N$424 million. MTC also declared a dividend payment of N$384 million in 2013 compared to N$341 million in 2012, while total income tax paid was N$190.8 million in 2012. Dividends declared since 2007 amount to a whopping N$2.3 billion. The MTC financial results that were announced on Friday also indicate that the company is well positioned for improved organic growth. The results were supported by strong data growth of 35 percent for the year under review, which enabled MTC to pay dividends of N$384 million to its shareholders, namely Namibia Post and Telecommunications Holding Company (NPTH) and Portugal Telecom. MTC is a leading network operator and market leader in Namibia connecting more than 2 million people in a country with a surface area of 824,268sqkm, a vast country, three times the size of Great Britain and twice that of Germany. During the period under review, MTC added a total of 176 281 new active SIM connections, passing the 2.2 million mark, the equivalent of Namibia’s population. Nevertheless, that statistic only indicates that active SIM connections are now increasing in single digit increments. The main reason for this growth is the growth of multi-SIM card usage connecting multiple devices, cellphones, smartphones, tablets and computers per customer. “The results reflect a challenging operating environment given the sustained global economic slowdown, highly competitive mobile markets and pricing pressures, which have seen average voice tariffs across our markets fall. Despite these challenges, our substantial investment in network infrastructure and robust subscriber growth position us well for improved growth. It is crucial to stress that MTC was very able to capture a valuable slice of that available disposable income by accelerating innovative initiatives in its offers to the market, increasing the more-value-for money concept to consumers,” said Geraldes.