November 14 (SeeNews) - Croatian wireless operator Vipnet had a third-quarter operating income before depreciation, amortisation and impairment charges (EBITDA) of 84.5 million euro ($123.8 million), up 8.9% on the year, due to higher revenues, its parent company Telekom Austria said on Wednesday.
In the third quarter Vipnet's revenue rose by 14.0% year-on-year to 165.7 million euro, Telekom Austria said in a statement. Operating income increased by 15.6% to 66.7 million euro.
At the end of September Vipnet's subscribers numbered 2.1 million, 15.0% more than a year earlier.
Vipnet's market share remained stable to 43.2%, Telekom Austria said. Market penetration in the Adriatic country rose to 108.9% from 94.8% at the end of the third quarter of 2006, it added.
Vipnet's main competitors on the wireless market in Croatia are T-Mobile, a unit of Deutsche Telekom's Croatian arm T-HT, and Tele2, owned by the Swedish operator of the same name.
Vipnet also holds a licence for a fixed-line operator.
Apart from Vipnet, the wireless operations of Telekom Austria group ( www.telecom.at ) include Mobilkom Austria, Bulgarian Mobiltel and Slovenian Si.mobil.
Telekom Austria said its EBITDA in mobile communication through September fell by 1.3% to 919.6 million euro as costs related to the launch of operations in Serbia and Macedonia were largely offset by growing international operations in Bulgaria, Croatia and Slovenia.
The Austrian group launched mobile operations in Serbia under the brand Vip in July. In February it received a licence to become the third mobile operator in Macedonia.
Telekom Austria's revenue in mobile communication for the first nine months of the year increased by 3.1% to 2.238 billion euro.
Operation income fell by 5,3% to 534.9 million euro on the year as a result of high operating expenses and higher depreciation and amortisation charges in following higher capital expenditures.
($ = 0.6828 euro)