By Oliver Nabukeera
Data services seem to be the telecom industry’s future as voice and SMS revenues continue to dwindle. This is attributed to aggressive competition by free messaging and voice platforms, regulatory pressures and weakening economic environment in key markets. Announcing the MTN Group’s half year results on 7th August 2014, Sifiso Dabengwa the company’s Group President and CEO noted good growth has however continued to be witnessed in data and Mobile Money usage.
“MTN Uganda’s strong data revenue growth of 54.7 percent has contributed significantly to our 6.8 percent year-on-year increase in revenue. Our data revenue now contributes 24.7 percent to total revenues. MTN Mobile Money recorded a 20.7 percent increase since December 2013 to 6.2 million registered users, who in turn now generate more than 28.5 million transactions per month. These drivers have contributed to a 39.4 percent increase in mobile money related revenue,