(Business in Cameroon) - South African telecoms group MTN International has just announced its subsidiaries’ results for the first quarter of 2015. They show that its subsidiary in Cameroon did not live up to expectation. Indeed, although Cameroon’s mobile phone leader expanded its client base, which is now 10.4 million strong, up by 7.3%, the company’s “total income […] decreased by 0.4%, largely due to the 7.7% reduction in voice call earnings because of a 15.7% downturn in price.”

Among the reasons for this slight loss in earnings, the MTN International group cites “aggressive compeitition on the market, which is lowering prices”, Nexttel’s 3G exclusivity (which ended on March 31, 2015) and investments made to be accommodate 3G technology.

Although the company’s overall revenue declined due to lower call rates, the group notes that its data earnings in Cameroon have substantially increased. In this area, there has been 45.7% growth, which enabled data service to make up 11.5% of MTN Cameroon’s earnings in the first quarter of 2015.

This increase in data revenue, highlights MTN, is due to various 3G promotions launched, particularly online, digital services and MTN Mobile Money, which has 1.7 million users in late June 2015.