Vodacom on Tuesday announced it had recorded 21.5 million customers across its networks operating in South Africa, Tanzania, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Mozambique and Lesotho as of December 31, 2005.

The cellular group said this reflected a 12.4 percent increase in the three months since September 2005.

Vodacom South Africa increased its customer base by a healthy 11.6 percent since September 2005 to 17.6 million customers in an increasingly competitive market.

The group's international operations comprised 3.9 million customers, or 18.1 percent of the total customer base.

Meanwhile, Vodafone, which is seeking to raise its stake in Vodacom to 50 percent, on Tuesday announced it had gained 7.1 million customers during the December quarter, taking its total customer base to 179.3 million, according to AFP.

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