South African mobile operator Vodacom said on Tuesday its third-quarter group service revenue grew nearly 4%, boosted by growth in the domestic market, while it invested R3.4 billion ($226.22 million) in its network across the group.

The company, majority owned by Britain’s Vodafone, said group service revenue for the three months ended December 31, rose to R19.6 billion, pushing group revenue up by 6.4%.

On a normalised basis, service revenue grew by 4.2%, buoyed by strong growth at its South African business, which grew service revenue by 5.4%, supported by a summer rewards campaign, which was opted by 23 million customers.

Data traffic in the domestic business rose 43.2%, as the growth trend normalised with eased lockdown restrictions for most of the quarter.

Traffic had peaked in the first quarter to 98% as millions of South Africans were forced to stay at home due to Covid-19 lockdowns.

Normalised service revenue growth trend at its international business, which includes a partly-owned stake in Kenya’s Safaricom, declined 0.3% in the quarter from a 5.2% decline in the previous quarter.

“The improvement reflects some progress on economic and commercial activity levels and improved M-Pesa platform monetisation,” it said. M-Pesa is used to send money, save, borrow and make payments for goods and services.

Vodacom added that consistent with the outlook provided at its interim results, it sees scope for consumer spend to recover over the medium-term as trading and economies re-open from lockdowns in the rest of Africa.

The R3.4 billion investment includes R2.7 billion of capital investment in South Africa “to support data demand and shifts in customer behaviour patterns with a need to work, entertain and educate from home.”

The investment in its international business was focused mainly on expanding the 4G network.