Airtel announces Q4 results: customer base crosses 250 million, net profit down by 28% (India)
Leading telecom operator in India, Bharti Airtel announced its consolidated IFRS results for the fourth quarter and year ended March 31, 2012. According to the company report, the revenue growth in the fourth quarter was fuelled by increased customer additions and strong minutes growth in India. Despite a national strike for 9 days in Nigeria, Africa revenues continued its growth trend.
The consolidated net profit declined 28 percent to $190.6 million, in the fourth quarter ended March, from $265 million a year earlier, resulting in the ninth consecutive quarter for which the operator witnessed a profit decline. The company added that the net income was impacted by higher costs on account of 3G license fee amortisation, 3G interest costs, forex fluctuation losses and tax.
Consolidated EBITDA margin was sustained at a robust level of 33.3 percent benefitting from scale and cost efficiencies. Further, revenue growth of 11.6 percent for the full year in India and South Asia was mainly contributed by stability in pricing accompanied by robust growth in customer numbers. The company’s Africa revenues stood at $1,071 million, up by 15.9 percent from the previous year.
In a statement, Sunil Bharti Mittal, Chairman & Managing Director, Bharti Airtel Limited, said that he is pleased that the year has ended with the Company’s customer base crossing 250 million across twenty countries, the twentieth country being Rwanda. Their launch of 4G LTE, the first in India, is testimony to their commitment to the broadband agenda.
Further, the recent regulatory developments in India will have significant implications on the future of telephony and broadband, as well as India’s global competitiveness. The entire industry looks to the Government for a fair, transparent and sustainable telecom regime.
Uninor subscriber base crosses 38 million (India)
Telecom operator Uninor has reported subscriber additions amounting to 2.49 million in January this year, reaching a total customer base of 38.79 million.
This brings great news to telecom operator Uninor, a joint venture between Telenor Norway and Unitech, whose 22 licenses were cancelled by the Indian Supreme Court earlier this month, claiming that the licences were obtained by illegal means.
As per a company statement, Uninor has claimed that in their 13 commercial circles in 2011, the highest number of subscribers chose Uninor. Further, they are satisfied to see that this strong preference continues into 2012 as well.
The operator added that it is their intention to continue competing as a mass market mobile service and ensure that the Indian mobile users continue to benefit from this competition.
Telenor had recently announced that it plans to form a new joint venture with another Indian entity in an attempt to continue its operations in the country.
2Degrees customer base increases to 580 mn(New Zealand)
2degrees, New Zealand mobile services provider, has increased its customer base to over half a million.
According to 2Degrees Chief Executive Eric Hertz, the company has 580,000 subscribers. It launched services in August 2009 and had 206,000 customers in March last year.
NBN Co acquires AUSTAR’s 2.3GHz/3.4GHz spectrum (Australia)
Australian pay-TV and telecommunications services provider, AUSTAR has announced the sale of its 2.3GHz and 3.4GHz wireless spectrum concessions to NBN Co, the public-private company set up to oversee the in-development National Broadband Network (NBN).
According to reports, the deal, which is valued at US$119.8 million, will help facilitate NBN Co’s plan to launch wireless broadband services in rural and regional areas of the country.
According to AUSTAR Chief Executive, John Porter, the agreement reached with NBN Co differed from other deals it had inked in the past with the likes of Optus and OPEL, which it noted included a combination of cash and various wholesale arrangements.
Meanwhile, AUSTAR’s group director of corporate development, Deanne Weir, revealed the company would now focus on developing its content platform beyond its current satellite-delivered customer base, noting that they will also look to create relationships with regional Australian homes that they don’t currently service, via high speed broadband and VoIP offerings.
Vodafone Australia hits by privacy breach
Vodafone Australia has confirmed that its customer database has been compromised by an employee or possibly a dealer, who then shared their access password with outside parties, revealing the personal details of the company’s customer base.
According to the company, it became aware of the security breach when contacted by a local newspaper, and has launched an internal investigation to find out who the culprit is, and how the breach occurred. The company also stated that all internal passwords were being reset to prevent further access to the database.
According to Vodafone Chief Executive, Nigel Dews, it appears to have been a one-off incident, but we are investigating that thoroughly now and they will have a much better picture of that in the next 24 to 48 hours.
Australia’s Privacy Commissioner is also investigating the security breach, but even if the company is found to have been negligent, the Commissioner has no powers to issue sanctions against the company.
The security breach comes at a bad time for the company as it deals with increasingly vocal customer complaints about network quality and a possible class-action lawsuit over the issue.
Dutch Mobile Virtual Operators – 2006 Q1
Nearly 40 mobile Virtual Operators (VOs) were active on the Dutch market at the end of March 2006, and increased their customer base by 15.2 percent over the past year to 2.50 million at the end of March 2006, versus 2.17 million at the end of March 2005. This Dutch Virtual Mobile Operators report provides a detailed analysis of the mobile VOs, focusing on target markets, service propositions and the VO’s market performance. Using a qualitative assessment, we rank the players based on the potential for their product in their chosen target market, their service proposition, their progress in the market and the strength, commitment and experience of their backers.
Source- http://www.telecompaper.com
Technorati : Mobile, Netherland, Operator
Ice Rocket : Mobile, Netherland, Operator
