Telenor's Montenegrin Unit Jan-Sept EBITDA Down 12% Y/Y to 254 Mln Norwegian Crowns (29.5 Mln Euro)

ProMonte's revenue fell to 587 million Norwegian crowns through September from 598 million crowns in the same period last year, Telenor said in a statement posted on its website.

“EBITDA in local currency decreased by 11% due to reduced revenues and increased personnel costs related to increased competition and launch of new technologies,” the statement added.

Telenor's main rival in the country of some 620,000 people is T-Mobile, owned by the Hungarian unit of Deutsche Telekom, Magyar Telekom. In July 2007, a third mobile operator, MTel, owned by a consortium of Serbian state-owned company Telekom Srbija and Netherlands-based Ogalar, started operations in the tiny Adriatic state.

“The number of subscriptions increased by 12,000 during the quarter, while the market share at the end of the third quarter was 41%,” the statement said. Telenor’s subscribers in Montenegro totalled 533,000 at the end of September.

(1 euro = 8.6123 Norwegian crowns)