SENS Note - 06 May 2011

MTN announce subscriber numbers

MTN recorded 147 265 000 subscribers at 31 March 2011. This is a 4% increase for the quarter from 141 598 000 subscribers recorded at 31 December 2010. The group continued to perform well despite aggressive competition and heightened political unrest in certain countries in the Middle East and West Africa. MTN continues to make good progress on its various key group initiatives. Data, including SMS, has continued its strong growth trajectory. In South Africa, smartphones account now account for 11% of the postpaid and 1.5% of the prepaid base. As previously disclosed, MTN entered into a joint venture agreement with American Tower Corporation to acquire the tower portfolio of MTN Ghana. The joint venture closed on the acquisition of an initial tranche of 400 towers in early May 2011. Mobile money subscribers increased by 5% to 4.6 million when compared to December 2010. MTN is now active in 12 of its markets, 5 of which are in pilot soft launch phase. In Uganda, mobile money revenues contributed more than 3.5% of total in country revenue for the quarter. MTN continues to benefit from its various cable investments. In April this year the high-capacity West Africa Cable System (WACS) linking Southern Africa and Europe landed at Yzerfontein, South Africa. The 14 000km long fibre optic submarine cable system has already landed in Nigeria, Cote d'Ivoire and Cameroon and is expected to land in Ghana in early May 2011. MTN is the landing party in the last four countries mentioned. Service on this cable system is anticipated to commence in late 2011.

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