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JOHANNESBURG, Nov 9 (Reuters) - South African mobile phoneoperator Vodacom on Monday reported a 6 percent rise inhalf-year profit, buoyed by sharp growth in data revenue.
The South African unit of Britain's Vodafone hasspent billions to expand its network in recent years with astrong focus on providing faster internet to its customers asmore of them get smartphones.
"We're becoming more of a big data provider, an internetprovider if you like," Vodacom Group Chief Executive ShameelJoosub said in a conference call with reporters.
The company said headline earnings per share - the mainprofit measure in South Africa and strips out certain one-offitems - rose to 440 cents from 415 cents, in the six monthsended Sept. 30.
Data revenue was up 33.5 percent as Vodacom increased 4Gcoverage in its home market, the company said.
"In South Africa, LTE/4G coverage increased from 32.2percent to 46.8 percent," said Joosub.
Customers that have access to 4G have increased to nearly 2million in Africa's most advanced economy and they use almostthree times more data than those stuck with lower speeds, Joosubsaid in a statement released with the results.
The company is forming partnerships with content providersto get its customers to consume more videos and music on smartdevices as it tries to rake in more data revenue.
"We need to play more in the content space," Joosub said.
Vodacom's smartphone users consume around 425 MB of data permonth, compared to 2 GB in the U.S. and Britain which Joosubsees as an opportunity for growth.
Shares in Vodacom were up 1.5 percent to 150.73 rand by 0755GMT. (Reporting by TJ Strydom; Editing by James Macharia)
