LJUBLJANA (Slovenia), April 22 (SeeNews) – Telekom Austria Group said on Wednesday that earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) of its wireless unit in Slovenia, Si.mobil, rose 68% on the year to 26.1 million euro ($27.9 million) in the first quarter of 2015.
Si.mobil’s earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) increased 10.3% on the year to 31.7 million euro in the first quarter, and revenues fell by 13.8% to 43.4 million euro in the review period, Telekom Austria said in its first-quarter financial report.
The Slovenian operator’s mobile subscriber base rose by an annual 1% to 684,400 customers, while its mobile broadband clients increased by an annual 15.5% to 25,000 at the end of March. The company’s mobile market share was 29.2% at the end of March, compared to 29.9% a year ago.
Slovenia, a country of 2 million, had a mobile market penetration rate of 112.2% at the end of the review period, up from 108.9% a year earlier.
Si.mobil competes with Slovenia's largest cellphone operator, Mobitel, a unit of state-owned Telekom Slovenije, T-2, Debitel, Izi Mobil and Tusmobil.
Besides Si.mobil, the wireless operations of Telekom Austria Group include Velcom in Belarus, Mobilkom Austria, Bulgaria's Mobiltel, Croatia’s Vipnet, Serbia's Vip Mobile and Macedonia's Vip Operator.
($=0.9362 euro)