Telkom’s Data Growth Story Still Has Years to Run: CEO

Why It Matters

Telkom’s diversified data strategy positions it to outpace commoditisation pressures that are eroding margins for pure‑play mobile operators, offering investors a more resilient revenue base in Africa’s telecom market.

Key Takeaways

• Telkom data revenue up 7.6% to R26.6bn ($1.4bn)
• Mobile data subscribers rose 31% to 20 million
• Openserve posted first revenue growth in nine years, +2.3%
• CEO sees AI‑driven traffic as next growth engine
• Telkom aims to profit from total ecosystem data, not just mobile

Pulse Analysis

Telkom’s latest earnings reveal a strategic pivot away from the traditional voice‑centric model that has long dominated African telecoms. While voice revenues have flattened into a low‑margin commodity, the company’s data segment now accounts for nearly 60% of its R44.48 billion (≈$2.34 bn) group turnover. The 7.6% rise in data revenue to R26.6 billion underscores a robust demand curve, buoyed by a 31.1% surge in mobile data subscriptions to 20 million users. By converting Rand figures to U.S. dollars, the scale of Telkom’s growth becomes clear to global investors.

The CEO outlines three distinct engines fueling this momentum. First, Openserve, Telkom’s wholesale arm, is finally breaking a nine‑year revenue stagnation with a 2.3% increase, reflecting enterprise appetite for high‑capacity connectivity. Second, carrier‑side traffic continues to climb as consumers replace voice calls with data‑heavy applications. Third, artificial‑intelligence workloads are emerging as a high‑value use case, demanding "bigger pipes" that Telkom’s fiber and transport infrastructure can supply. This multi‑pronged approach contrasts with rivals MTN and Vodacom, which lean heavily on mobile fintech and edge‑AI compute, exposing them to narrower revenue streams.

For the market, Telkom’s ecosystem‑wide data focus signals a longer runway for earnings growth and a hedge against the inevitable price erosion of pure mobile data. The company’s capex plans, aimed at expanding fiber backbones and AI‑ready transport layers, should reinforce its position as a preferred carrier for both enterprise and emerging AI services. Investors watching Africa’s telecom landscape will likely view Telkom as a more diversified play, capable of capturing value across fixed, wholesale, mobile, and AI‑driven data traffic for years to come.