Cell C grows revenue by 16%

SOUTH Africa’s third-largest telecoms operator Cell C said yesterday it grew its full-year revenue by 16 percent and planned to invest R2.2 billion partially in new technology this year. The unlisted company that initiated a bruising price war two years ago in a bid to gain market share from giants Vodacom and MTN said it increased customers by 44 percent to 19.6 million users in 2014. The company said that this year’s budget, down from R2.3 billion in 2014, would partly be spent on upgrading to Long Term Evolution (LTE) technology to provide high-speed data for phones and other mobile devices. Last year, Cell C restructured debt worth e160 million (R2.1bn), including e82.7 million from its parent Saudi Oger. – Reuters