South Africa

Vodacom Group owns 93.75% of Vodacom SA, with the remaining 6.25% held by Vodacom’s BBBEE shareholders. Vodacom SA commenced commercial service in June 1994 and is the market leader in South Africa with an estimated 53% market share.

Vodacom SA was originally granted a mobile cellular telecommunications licence in September 1993 and commenced commercial service in June 1994. In addition, Vodacom SA was awarded a 1 800 MHz licence, and a 3G spectrum licence during the 2005 financial year. In terms of the Electronic Communications Act, on 16 January 2009, ICASA issued Vodacom SA with an individual Electronic Communications Services licence (“ECS”) and an individual Electronic Communications Network Service licence (“ECNS”), for a period of 15 years and 20 years, respectively.

Vodacom SA had 27.6 million mobile customers as at 31 March 2009, comprising 69.7% of the Group’s customer base. Vodacom SA contributed 86.0% to group revenue and 89.2% to group EBITDA for the year ended 31 March 2009.

Highlights:

• Revenue growth of 10.8% driven by 11.3% growth in customers to 27.6 million
• Data revenue up 27.9% to R6.0 billion supported by 80.0% growth in broadband customers to 720 000
• Growth in EBITDA of 9.7%, with EBITDA margin stable at 34.2%
• Record gross connections of 13.1 million and churn reduced by 2.2 percentage points to 40.1%
• ARPU up 3.9% to R133 per month, due to increased prepaid usage
• 322 3G sites added to the data network and eight of 11 metropolitan fibre rings completed
• Almost 5 million unique packet data users
• Vodacom Business gains traction, attracting top talent and developing a portfolio of 28 products