SA`s largest mobile operator, Vodacom, said yesterday, in a JSE trading update, that about 3.5 million subscribers would be removed from its network, due to changes in the definition of an "active user".
"SA defines an active customer as a SIM card that had revenue-generating activity in the three months leading up to the reporting date," reads the statement. Vodacom said changing the definition of "active user" was an internal company decision.
Up until mid-June 2006, SIM cards that received calls forwarded to voicemail were regarded as revenue-generating, it adds, and such SIM cards were classified as active customers. The new rules determine a voice message must be retrieved for the customer`s profile to remain "active". The three-month time period has been extended to 215 consecutive days, the company said.
With the SIM cards that have calls forwarded to voicemail as the only revenue-generating activity, the majority of such messages are never retrieved by the customer, said Vodacom.
Vodacom estimates these SIM cards have an average revenue per user (ARPU) of less than R1 per month, well below the cost of maintaining their subscription to the network.
"It is, therefore, not justifiable to keep such SIM cards on the network," the operator explained.
Vodacom group executive of corporate communications Dot Field says it is likely some of the 3.5 million SIM cards to be deleted are SIM cards that have been discarded, lost or stolen.
Parent company Vodafone, in a recent release, said about 400 000 Vodacom subscribers had already been removed from its networks in SA, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Lesotho, Mozambique and Tanzania.
Following the deletion of the 3.5 million SIM cards, Vodacom expects its ARPU statistics to increase, while the overall effect on revenue will be "immaterial". It is also likely the disconnections will provide Vodacom with more accurate subscriber number statistics, the group stated.
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