www.WirelessFederation.com/news: 6.8% year-on-year fall in the revenue has been reported by Nigerian telecoms operator Starcomms for the three months ended March 31, 2010 which went down to NGN7.94 billion (USD51.6 million). 32% decline in average revenue per user (ARPU) has also been recorded with the turnover going down from NGN1, 002 to NGN680.

The EBITDA of the fixed-wireless dropped 32% year-on-year to NGN1.6 billion in the first quarter of 2010. Due to higher network operating costs and maintenance charges resulting from the significant network expansion, the operating costs rose 12.4%. 22 states, 31 cities and over 170 towns are currently covered by the operator’s infrastructure.

16% increase in the total active subscribers to 2.66 million, pushed up data revenues as a percentage of total service revenues to 26% in Q1 compared to 20% in the same period a year earlier. Data revenues increased 21% year-on-year totaling NGN1.8 million in the quarter.