November 12 (SeeNews) - Telekom Austria said on Thursday that the operating income of its Bulgarian unit, wireless operator Mobiltel, dropped by 26.1% to 119.2 million euro ($178 million) through September.
Mobiltel had 5.243 million subscribers at the end of September, up 0.9% from a year earlier, Telekom Austria said in its nine-month financial report.
"The economic downturn in Bulgaria impacted Mobiltel’s business and private customer segments," the group said.
Following are details on Mobiltel's performance from the group's financial statement (in millions of euro):
|
|
Jan-Sept'09 |
Jan-Sept'08 |
Y/Y change in pct |
| OPERATING INCOME |
119.2 |
161.2 |
-26.1% |
| EBITDA |
254.1 |
288.9 |
-12% |
| REVENUE |
465.5 |
499.0 |
-6.7% |
Mobiltel’s market share fell to 49.7% at the end of September from 49.9% at the end of September last year. The mobile penetration rate in the country of 7.6 million rose from 139.4% in the previous year to 136.8%.
Average minutes of use charged per subscriber increased by 5.9% to 98.2 minutes in the three months to September whereas usage per contract subscriber declined. Lower contract usage together with lower prices as a consequence of fierce competition led to a decline in ARPU to 9.1 euro in the third quarter of 2009 compared to 10.1 euro a year earlier.
Mobiltel competes with Globul, a unit of Greek wireless operator Cosmote, and Vivacom, owned by Bulgarian telecoms group BTC.
Besides Mobiltel, the wireless operations of Telekom Austria group (www.telecom.at) include Belarussian Velcom, Mobilkom Austria, Croatia's Vipnet , Slovenia's Si.mobil , Serbia's Vip mobile and Macedonia's Vip operator.
Telekom Austria's operating income from mobile communication operations plunged 77.7% on the year to 122.9 million euro through September.
($ = 0.6694 euro)