Croatia's Optima Telekom cuts 9-mo cons loss, ADSL users increase

Optima Telekom's ADSL users on its own network increased by 1.9% on the year to 66,237 at the end of September, the company said in a bourse filing on Monday.

Total revenues at consolidated level increased by 21.8% to 447.7 million kuna through September while consolidated earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) rose 5.3% to 60.2 million kuna.

The company's digital TV subscribers on its own network surged 50% on the year to 21,050 at the end of September.

Croatia has a population of 4.3 million.

Optima's voice channels dropped 9.5% on the year to 243,690 at the end of the third quarter. A voice channel is the basic unit for the transfer of voice or data. The number of voice channels determines how many conversations can take place simultaneously on one telephone connection. A telephone connection may have one or more voice channels.

Optima extended its fibre-optic network to 2,546 kilometres at the end of the third quarter, up 1.2% on end-June.

Optima Telekom (www.optima.hr) was awarded a 30-year concession to provide fixed-line services in 2004.

(1 euro=7.5396 Croatian kuna)