Argentine mobile operator Personal recorded net profits of 130mn pesos (US$41.6mn) in the second quarter of 2007, up 261% compared to 36mn pesos in the same period last year, the company said in an earnings statement.
Revenues for Q3 totaled 1.37bn pesos, up 32% from 1.04bn pesos in the year-ago quarter.
The operator generated a net profit of 260mn pesos in the first nine months of 2007, a 491% increase on the 44mn pesos seen in the same period last year. Revenue for this period totaled 4.10bn pesos, 37% higher than the 3.00bn pesos seen in the first nine months of 2006.
Personal, the mobile unit of fixed telecoms operator Telecom Argentina, ended September 2007 with 11.6mn subscribers in Argentina and Paraguay, an increase of 35% compared to 8.6mn clients at the same time last year.
The Argentine unit reached 10.2mn subscribers at end-September, up 32% year-on-year. Some 67% of Argentine subscribers are prepaid and 96% of the client base is now using Personal's GSM platform, the remainder are using CDMA technology.
The Paraguay unit, which operates under the Nucleo brand, had 1.5mn subscribers at the end of the third quarter, an increase of 58% compared to end-September 2006.
The prepaid-postpaid mix in Paraguay is 89% versus 11% and 85% of Nucleo's subscribers are on GSM.
During the first nine months of 2007, Personal invested 426mn pesos, an increase of 9% compared to the same period in 2006. In Argentina, Personal invested 377mn pesos while investments in Paraguay were 49mn pesos.
"Personal continues to develop its capex plan to expand network and services such as the launch and expansion of 3G services," Telecom Argentina investor relations manager Pedro Insussary said during a conference call with investors.
The operator now plans to expand network infrastructure in the south of the country to deal with the increasing volume in mobile traffic generated by new customers, Insussary said.
"We are also increasing capacity in the greater Buenos Aires area and in the northern areas of the country," he added.
Posted to the site on 12th November 2007
Posted to: www.cellular-news.com/story/27339.php