Connectivity remains the foundation of our business. We remain committed to investing meaningfully in our infrastructure and fostering value-adding partnerships – including network sharing – to ensure that we leverage the evolving technology landscape. This will enable us to continue growing our core services under this platform such as data, home broadband and voice; as well as our digital services, enterprise and wholesale solutions.
We drove industry-leading connectivity operations with:
+157.8m
active data users +7.7% (including Iran, excluding disposed markets)
R71.7bn
data revenue +21.9%*
R57.2bn
voice revenue +0.5%* (+2.3%* excluding MTN SA – a mature voice market)
+32.6%
data traffic
+8.5%
voice traffic
Data is the largest structural opportunity driving the growth
of our business, and was the biggest source of service revenue
for MTN in 2024.
Our well-invested networks and commercial
innovations have supported strong growth in customers, with
higher data usage and traffic. We are leveraging our
substantial subscriber base of 290.9 million to further
accelerate consumer mobile data through increased
coverage and by providing affordable access.
Our investment case and outlook for medium-term growth are underpinned by structural demand.
Our CHASE framework, introduced in 2018, guides us in overcoming the five key barriers to mobile internet adoption: coverage, handsets, affordability, service bundling, and education and ease of access.
Performance in 2024
3G: 2 472 (2023: 3 313)
4G: 3 180 (2023: 5 239)
5G: 2 665 (2023: 2 251)
3G: 148.4m people
4G: 961.9m people
5G: 8.5m people
2G = 93.3%
3G = 88.0%
4G = 80.5%
5G = 14.4%
Group:
184.7 million
smartphones
Device financing in Nigeria, South Africa, Uganda, Ghana, Côte d'Ivoire, Cameroon, Rwanda through various partnerships
MTN is making good progress with partners on entry-level smartphone handsets
Reduced effective data tariff by approximately 11%
14 of our markets are within the UN recommended affordability range within the UN's affordable internet usage target, with the price of 1GB of mobile broadband data costing 2% or less of gross national income per capita
23.1% increase in total data use (11GB per user per month)
Competitively priced plans
Educated over 22m people on digital literacy
Data literacy game is now available on ayoba across all our markets
The home market is MTN’s next big connectivity opportunity, driven by the unmistakable shift in consumer behaviour. Given the prevalence of remote working, online schooling and streaming services, home connectivity has become a fundamental need. Our ambition is to be at the forefront of enabling this connectivity through the dual approach of investing in fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) deployments, 5G and 4G fixed wireless access, while leveraging infrastructure partnerships to accelerate MTN’s reach into customers’ homes.
Progress in 2024
~1.6m
incremental subscribers were added to the base – reaching 5.4 million MTN home subscribers
Launched unlimited FTTH packages in all core markets and increased entry speeds to 100Mbps+ in Uganda and Côte d’Ivoire. Speeds doubled in Nigeria and Ghana
FTTH deployment costs were reduced
~50%
giving us an opportunity to accelerate our growth
Households#
Households#
Eligible households
Eligible households
Mobile broadband (4G and 5G)
coverage
MBB (4G and 5G)
coverage
FWA (4G and 5G)
contribution to home
FWA (4G and 5G)
contribution to home
FTTH
homes passed
FTTH
homes passed
^Nigeria, South Africa, Ghana, Uganda, Cameroon and Côte d’Ivoire. #Source: Fitch Solutions
Home market opportunity
Households#
Eligible households
Mobile broadband (4G and 5G)
coverage
FWA (4G and 5G)
contribution to home
FTTH
homes passed
Households#
Eligible households
MBB (4G and 5G)
coverage
FWA (4G and 5G)
contribution to home
FTTH
homes passed
^Nigeria, South Africa, Ghana, Uganda, Cameroon and Côte d’Ivoire. #Source: Fitch Solutions
Home market opportunity
In many of MTN's developing markets, the demand for voice services continues to grow. As the demand for data is increasing, voice services still play a key role in generating revenue for the Group by serving as a crucial connectivity lifeline in the customer journey across our markets. At MTN, protecting revenue in the voice segment remains an important priority. This is achieved through improved network quality and by implementing enhanced customer value management strategies.
Progress in 2024
Achieved
290.9m
subscribers
Grew our voice user base by
+2.2% YoY
despite SIM registration regulatory challenges across some of our key markets
Managed voice substitution risk by accelerating integrated bundle penetration across our base 2024: 21.3% | 2023: 20.2% | 2022: 17.9% | 2021: 16.5% and giving our customers more voice value
Voice
User
growth
Voice user subscriber growth grew to
291 million in 2024
Voice
Substitution
risk
We managed the risk by increasing the penetration of customers consuming integrated bundles ~20% of the subscriber base
Proactive
MTR management
We managed mobile termination rates by following clear benchmark guidelines from regulators
Voice
Elasticity
Continued to scale innovative voice solutions that stimulate usage across our footprint
Our wholesale strategy, or NaaS, is anchored leveraging our leading and
well-invested infrastructure. Not only does it present accretive opportunities to enhance the
utilisation and returns of our networks,
we believe that this is critical to the longer-term sustainability of the telecommunications
industry and Dataco's capabilities to drive our markets.
MTN's Enterprise Business Unit (EBU) is Accelerating #BusinessDoneBetter by delivering simplified, customer-centric business solutions and spearheading digital transformation initiatives. We are leveraging our Converged Solutions, Chenosis, Digital and Dataco capabilities to drive customer-centric solutions to enable digital transformation of our customers.
MTN continues to build up content inventory of gaming, TV and video, music, advertising and instant messaging, which we provide through our digital services channels, including ayoba. We are scaling our digital services and content offerings across Africa to create an ecosystem that will reduce churn and increase engagement, enabling MTN to accelerate monetisation.
