Glossary

Glossary

 
(*) All amounts in this report marked with an ‘(*)’ represent normalised growth excluding trading foreign exchange and at a constant currency. Also refer to the normalised growth reconciliation of the consolidated annual financial report.
(#) Data for South Africa only.
2G 2G networks are operated using global system for mobile (‘GSM’) technology which offer services such as voice, text messaging and basic data. In addition, the entire Group’s controlled networks support general packet radio services (‘GPRS’), often referred to as 2.5G. GPRS allows mobile devices to access internet protocol (‘IP’) based data services such as the internet and email.
3G A cellular technology based on wide band code division multiple access (‘CDMA’) delivering voice and data services.
ADSL Asynchronous (or asymmetric) digital subscriber line, a method of routing digital data on copper telephone wires, allowing high-speed internet access and simultaneous use of the line for voice transmission.
Aids Acquired immune deficiency syndrome, a disease in which there is a severe loss of the body’s cellular immunity, greatly lowering the resistance to infection and malignancy.
ARPU Total average revenue per user per month is calculated by dividing average monthly service revenue by the average monthly total reported mobile customer base during the period.
BA Bankers’ acceptance rate.
BBBEE Broad-based black economic empowerment is a programme launched by the South African Government to redress the inequalities by giving previously disadvantaged economic opportunities previously not available to them. It includes measures such as Employment Equity, skills development, ownership, management, socioeconomic development and preferential procurement.
Black Black has the meaning for present purposes being Africans, Coloureds, Indians and Chinese who are natural persons and who are South African citizens by, (i) birth or descent, or (ii) naturalisation occurring (a) prior to 27 April 1994, being the commencement date of the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa of 1993, or (b) after that date but who would have qualified for naturalisation prior to that date if it were not for the apartheid policies in place in South Africa.
Broadband Broadband is a method of measuring the capacity of different types of transmission. Digital bandwidth is measured in the rate of bits transmitted per second (‘bps’). For example, an individual ISDN channel has a bandwidth of 64 kilobits per second (‘kbps’), meaning that it transmits 64 000 bits (digital signals) every second.
Churn Churn is calculated by dividing the annualised number of disconnections during the period by the average monthly total reported mobile customer base during the period.
Customers Customers are based on the total number of mobile customers registered on Vodacom’s network, which have not been disconnected, including inactive customers, at the end of the period indicated.
Data bundle customers A unique count of customers who have made a commitment to use data, either as part of their primary offering, or as an additional bundle. Includes BlackBerry customers.
Data customers They are a number of unique customers who have generated revenue related to any data activities in relation to mobile data revenue (this excludes SMS and MMS messaging users) in the reported month. A user is defined as being active if they are paying for a contractual monthly fee for this service or have used the service during the reported month.
EBITDA Earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation, amortisation, impairment losses, BBBEE charge, profit/loss on disposal of property, plant and equipment, intangible assets and investment properties.
EDGE In most our networks we also provide an advanced version of GPRS called enhanced data rates for GSM evolution (‘EDGE’). This provides download speeds of over 200 kilobits per second (‘kbps’) to customers.
Ethernet A family of frame-based computer networking technologies for local area networks (‘LANs’).
Fibre rings The fibre rings have come to be used in many fibre networks as they provide more network resiliency; if there is a failure along a route and a ring is broken, the direction of the traffic can be reversed and the traffic will still reach its final destination.
Free cash flow Cash generated from operations less additions to property, plant and equipment and intangible assets, proceeds on disposal of property, plant and equipment and intangible assets, tax paid and net finance charges paid.
HEPS Headline earnings per share. Refer to note 8 of the consolidated annual financial report for the HEPS reconciliation.
HIV Human immunodeficiency virus, a retrovirus that causes Aids.
HSDPA High-speed downlink packet access is a wireless technology enabling theoretical network to mobile data transmission speeds of up to 43.2 Mbps.
HSPA High-speed packet access or third generation (‘3G’) is a wireless technology operating wideband code division multiple access (‘W-CDMA’) technology, providing customers with voice, video telephony, multimedia messaging and high-speed data services.
ICT Information and communications technology includes any communication device or application, encompassing: radio, television, cellular phones, computer and network hardware and software, satellite systems and so on, as well as the various services and applications associated with them, such as video conferencing and distance learning.
IFRS International financial reporting standards.
Interconnect Refers to the joining of two or more telecommunications networks. Networks need to interconnect to enable traffic to be transmitted to and from destinations. The amounts paid and received by the operators vary according to distance, time, the direction of traffic, and the type of networks involved.
International International comprises the segment information relating to the non-South African-based cellular networks in Tanzania, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Mozambique and Lesotho as well as the operations of Vodacom International Limited, Vodacom Business Africa and Gateway Carrier Services.
JIBAR Johannesburg interbank agreed rate.
King III King report on governance for South Africa 2009.
Leased line Leased line is a telecommunications transmission circuit that is reserved by a communications provider for the private use of a customer.
LTE Long-term evolution technology is a 4G technology that offers even faster data transfer speeds than 3G/HSPA, increases network capacity and is able to deliver sustained customer throughputs of between 6 – 12 Mbps in real network conditions.
Mi-Fi A Mi-Fi is a portable broadband wireless device about the size of a credit card that combines functions of a modem, router and access point. The internal modem accesses a wireless signal and the internal router shares that connection among users and devices.
Microwave It is a radio transmission using very short wavelengths.
Mobile internet Browser-based access to the internet or web applications using a mobile device, such as a smartphone, connected to a wireless network.
Mobile SIM penetration Number of SIMs in a country as a percentage of the country’s population. Penetration can be in excess of 100% due to customers’ owning more than one SIM.
Mobile termination rate (‘MTR’) A per minute charge paid by a telecommunications network operator when a customer makes a call to another mobile or fixed line network operator.
MOU Minutes of use per month is calculated by dividing the average monthly minutes (traffic) during the period by the average monthly total reported mobile customer base during the period.
n/a Not applicable or not available.
n/m Not measured.
Neotel Neotel (Pty) Limited, a company incorporated in the Republic of South Africa.
Net promoter score (‘NPS’) Net promoter score is a customer loyalty metric used to monitor customer satisfaction.
Operating free cash flow Cash generated from operations less additions to property, plant and equipment and intangible assets and proceeds on disposal of property, plant and equipment and intangible assets.
PC connectivity devices All PC connection devices including data cards, dongles and embedded modems.
RAN Radio access network is part of a mobile telecommunications system which conceptually sits between the mobile phone and the base station.
RICA Regulation of Interception of Communications and Provision of Communication-Related Information Act.
Roaming Allows our customers to make calls on other operators’ mobile networks while travelling abroad.
Smartphone A smartphone is a mobile phone offering advanced capabilities including access to email and the internet.
South Africa Vodacom (Pty) Limited, a private limited liability company duly incorporated in accordance with the laws of South Africa and its subsidiaries, joint ventures and SPVs.
Spectrum The radio frequency bands and channels assigned for telecommunication services.
Switch It is a computer that acts as a conduit and director of traffic. It is a means of sharing resources on a network.
Tablet A tablet is a slate shaped, mobile or portable, casual computing device equipped with a finger operated touchscreen or stylus, for example, the Apple iPad.
Traffic Vodacom’s traffic comprises total traffic registered on Vodacom’s mobile network, including bundled minutes, promotional minutes and outgoing international roaming calls, but excluding national roaming calls, incoming international roaming calls and calls to free services.
UMTS Universal mobile telecommunications system, is a 3G mobile technology that will deliver broadband information at speeds up to 2 Mbps. Besides voice and data, UMTS will deliver audio and video to wireless devices anywhere in the world through fixed, wireless and satellite systems.
Vodacom
M-Pesa		 A mobile payment solution that enables customers to complete simple financial transactions by mobile phone.
Vodafone Vodafone Group Plc ultimately controls the Vodacom Group and owns 65.0% of the issued shares through Vodafone Holdings SA (Pty) Limited and Vodafone Investments SA (Pty) Limited. Vodafone Group Plc is incorporated and domiciled in the United Kingdom.
VOIP Voice over internet protocol, a communications protocol that allows for telephonic communication via the internet.
VPN A virtual private network is a secure way of connecting to a private local area network at a remote location, using the internet or any unsecure public network to transport the network data packets privately, using encryption.
Wi-Fi A Wi-Fi enabled device such as a smartphone can connect to the internet when within a range of a wireless network connected to the internet.

© 2010 Vodacom (Pty) Limited.