SIM deactivation: MTN lose over 21,000 subscribers

MTN Ghana has reported 21,237 of its subscribers were deactivated either due to non-registration or inactivity of their invalidly registered SIMs.

The company said in its first quarter (Q1) report ending March 31, 2012 that the deactivated SIM represented 2% of its subscriber base, which increased by some 2.3%.

It would be recalled that on March 3, 2012 the National Communication Authority (NCA) deactivated some 1.5 million SIMs, which were either not registered or invalidly registered but had been inactive for periods between three and six months.

The NCA said then that those which were invalidly registered and inactive had to be deactivated because the owners could not be reached to go regularize their registration.

But the NCA stopped short of saying how many of the 1.5 deactivated SIMs belonged to each of the five telcos, saying that it had an agreement with the telcos not to publish those figures.

MTN however published in its Group Q1 report for 2012 that it lost 21,237 subscribers from that exercise, which was just 1.3% of the 1,524,891 deactivated.

The NCA has still not published the subscriber level figures for the first quarter ending March 31, 2012, and it is May, 2012. The March figures are expected to give an indication of which telcos lost the biggest to SIM deactivation.

Meanwhile the MTN Group chalked some 3.7% (6,072,000) increase subscribers in Q1, from 164,501,000 in December last year to 170,573,000 as at March 31, 2012. MTN Ghana contributed 6.1% (370,392) to the group’s Q1 subscriber base increase.

MTN Ghana also reported that it maintained its market share in a competitive environment, due to attractive promotions as well as the implementation of a regional structure to better manage sales and marketing.

It said noted in the report that a sixth mobile operator [Glo] launched commercial service at the end of April. Meanwhile one of its promotions is a subject of ongoing legal dispute right how.

The company said its average revenue per user (ARPU) in local currency increase by 3.4% mainly because of revised value propositions. Subscriber and Average Revenue Per User (ARPU) numbers for Quarter Ended 31 March 2012

Meanwhile the MTN Group said in a statement it delivered a satisfactory performance notwithstanding continued high levels of competition in key markets.

MTN South Africa contributed 13.3% to Group subscribers and delivered a sound performance in a mature market. But blended ARPU in South Africa declined 7.9% mainly due to a reduction in interconnect rates in that country. Postpaid and prepaid ARPU also decreased 6.7% and 8.1% respectively.

MTN Nigeria also contributed 25.1% to Group subscribers and increased its subscriber base by 3.0% for the quarter. Its local currency ARPU declined by 1.1% for the quarter.

The embattled MTN Irancell contributed 21.6% to Group subscribers. Local currency ARPU for MTN Irancell increased 3,7% due to improved network quality, and in spite of the strong legal tussle over alleged bribery and the possible US sanctions the company could face due to alleged relationship with ‘terrorist’ groups in Iran and Syria.

MTN Syria contributed 3.3% to Group subscribers and its performance continued to be hampered by civil unrest in the country, which resulted in a reduction of subscriber numbers of 23,000 subscribers and a decline in local currency ARPU of 8.5%.

The rest of MTN's operations contributed 30.5% to Group subscribers, representing an increase in users of 3.5%.

Meanwhile, the subscriber base target for the group this year is 21,300, out of which MTN Ghana expects to contribute 950,000; Nigeria and Iran, four million each, South Africa, 2.9million, Syria, 450,000 and the rest of the operation, an aggregate of eight million subscribers.