Vodacom to spend R2bn on fixed network

File photo: Nadine Hutton.

File photo: Nadine Hutton.

Published Dec 17, 2013

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Johannesburg - Vodacom Group Ltd., the wireless operator with the most subscribers in South Africa, plans to increase its capital expenditure by more than 2 billion rand ($190 million) as it develops its fixed-line business.

Vodacom, which is 65 percent owned by Vodafone Group Plc, will spend more than 9 billion rand next year on its infrastructure in South Africa compared with about 7 billion rand this year, chief executive Shameel Joosub said in a internal presentation to staff at the Johannesburg-based company.

“We’re going to start building fiber into the home, fiber to the business and so on, and really start trying to play a bigger role in the fixed space,” Joosub said in a December 12 video message.

“We’re going to spend over 9 billion rand next year and that’s so we can help deliver on the strategy of helping government get to the 2020 broadband strategy.”

Vodafone, Europe’s biggest mobile operator, is putting aside about 7 billion pounds ($11.4 billion) from the sale of its Verizon Wireless stake in the US to upgrade networks for units including Vodacom, as part of an investment plan known as Project Spring.

South Africa wants 90 percent of the population to have access to reliable and affordable broadband Internet by the end of this decade.

Vodacom is increasingly focused on small- to medium-sized business customers and is in exclusive talks to buy Internet provider Neotel Pty Ltd. Including acquisitions, the phone company may triple its capital expenditure next year, according to the presentation.

Vodacom has also increased its market share in South Africa to more than 53 percent at the year-end from around 50 percent in its fiscal first quarter, Joosub said.

The company’s biggest domestic rival is MTN Group Ltd., which is Africa’s largest wireless provider. - Bloomberg News

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