Kuwait's MTC Adds 80,000 New Iraqi Customers In 3Q 2004"

DUBAI -(Dow Jones)- Kuwait's Mobile Telecommunications Co. (TELE.KW) Monday said its Iraqi unit, Atheer Iraq, added almost 80,000 new customers in the third quarter of 2004 - a 125% rise from its 63,387 subscribers at the end of the second quarter.

Atheer Iraq faces challenges in meeting demand for cellular telephone service in southern Iraq, but plans to accelerate network capacity and coverage, MTC said.

Iraqi investors own 50% of Atheer, with MTC holding 30% and other Kuwaiti investors the remaining 20%.

MTC said group revenues for the first nine months of 2004 were $807.64 million, 22% more than the same period last year. Net income for the same period reached $305.13 million, the company said.

MTC now has 2.84 million subscribers across its five regional networks. The company has said it is targeting 5 million customers by 2005.

MTC said its home subscriber base grew 4% in the first nine months of 2004 to reach 1.1 million, or 57% of Kuwait's cellphone market share.

MTC's Jordanian subsidiary, Fastlink, increased customers by 6% during the third quarter to reach 1.08 million subscribers, or 73% of the country's market share.

MTC Vodafone Bahrain had 76,576 customers at the end of the third quarter, a 59% increase on the second quarter.

MTC's newest regional network, MTC Liban in Lebanon, had 425,585 customers in its first four months of operations, a 4% increase since the end of the second quarter.

Under a 2002 alliance with Vodafone (VOD), MTC markets Vodafone's international products. Vodafone doesn't have a stake in MTC but is being paid a fixed fee for the use of its name.

-By Simeon Kerr, Dow Jones Newswires; +971 4 390 8134; simeon.kerr@dowjones.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires"

Posted to the site on 8th November 2004