Telkom is not really a phone company anymore. In its results for the year to March 2026, group revenue crept up just 1.4% to R44.5 billion, but underneath that flat top line the business has quietly reshaped itself. Data now brings in almost 60% of revenue, up from 56% a year ago, after growing 7.6% to R26.6 billion, with mobile data revenue climbing 10.5% on data traffic that grew 18.5% to 2,084 petabytes.
A much bigger dividend
The clearest signal of confidence is the payout. Telkom raised its dividend by 65.7% to 270 cents a share, only the second year since it restored dividends after a four-year gap. It could afford to. Free cash flow, the cash left after running costs and investment, rose 10.4% to R3.1 billion, and net debt fell to just 0.5 times earnings. The board lifted its payout range to between 40% and 60% of that cash flow, setting this year's dividend at 45%.
Mobile and fibre did the work
The engine underneath is mobile and fibre. The mobile arm passed 25 million subscribers and notched its 14th straight quarter of market-leading service revenue growth, with mobile data subscribers up 31.1% to almost 20 million and pre-paid revenue growing 10.3%. The consumer unit lifted its operating earnings 20.8%. Openserve, Telkom's fibre network, recorded its first full-year revenue growth in nine years, having connected more homes and lifted its fibre connectivity rate to 53.1%. Core earnings per share jumped 21.5% to 708.5 cents, and group operating cash earnings rose to R12.5 billion at a 28.1% margin. Not everything shone: the BCX IT unit stayed roughly flat, though its cybersecurity revenue grew 21.1%. Chief executive Serame Taukobong called the results validation of Telkom's data-led "OneTelkom" strategy.
Investors liked it, sending the shares up as much as 6.6% before they settled higher on the day. Management plans to keep investing 12% to 15% of revenue in mobile and fibre; capital spending rose 10.4% to R6.4 billion, an intensity of 14.5%. The real test now is whether a leaner, data-led Telkom, still South Africa's third-largest mobile operator behind Vodacom and MTN, can keep growing once the easy turnaround wins are banked.
