Media Comment - 27 March 2002

M-Cell subsidiary MTN beats forecasts

M-Cell said that it operation MTN Nigeria, had signed up 315 000 subscribers since its launch in Aug 2001, sharply exceeding the group's expectations. M-Cell CE, Paul Edwards, said that the group had originally planned to sign up 175 000 active subscribers by the end of Mar 02. This figure has almost doubled and has exceeded the projected revenue per subscriber. He also said that the group's operations in other African countries were doing well. The strong growth in Nigeria would ensure continued strong earnings growth into the future, despite the increasingly mature market in SA.