The MTN Group has recorded a 55 percent year-on-year increase in subscriber numbers in all its operations in 14 African countries to 24.185 million, registering an increase of 4 percent since the last reported period ending December 31, according to the group's website.

However, excluding operations acquired in the previous financial period, the South Africa-based telecommunication company 's year-one-year subscriber growth is currently stands at 43 percent.

The group's international operations recorded a total of 13.986 million subscribers, an increase of 8 percent since the end of 2005, and is now accounting for 58 percent of MTN subscriber base as compared to 56 percent it recorded at the end of last year.

MTN President Phuthuma Nhleko was quoted as saying that "these figures reflect the development of the MTN Group into an increasingly diversified entity."

MTN Nigeria remains the biggest of the international operations, with its closing base of 9.06 million being 65 percent of the its subscribers outside of South Africa.

MTN Zambia chief sale and marketing officer Freddie Mokoena said in Lusaka recently that the subscriber base in the southern African country stands at 109,000 as at the close of the 2005 financial year.

Source: Xinhua