Uzbek mobile operator Unitel’s earnings grow

Tashkent, Uzbekistan, May 25

By Demir Azizov - Trend:

The earnings of Uzbekistan's mobile operator, Unitel, which is the Russian VimpelCom's subsidiary operating under trademark Beeline, grew in Jan.-March 2015 by 2.5 percent versus the same period of 2014, reaching $167 million, VimpelCom Ltd. said in a message.

The official exchange rate as of May 25 is 2532.34 UZS/$ 1.

The company said the earnings in the mobile services segment rose over this period by 3.1 percent to $166 million and in the fixed services segment the revenues doubled - reaching $2 million, versus $1 million the previous year.

The company's earnings from data transmission services over this period rose by 12.8 percent up to $34.3 million.

Unitel's operating earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA), remained at the level of the same period of last year - at $105 million, while the marginality of operations fell by 1.7 percent to 62.7 percent .

The company's subscriber base reduced by two percent compared to the early 2015 - from 10.6 million to 10.4 million subscribers.

The monthly average revenue per user (ARPU) of the mobile communication rose by almost two percent to 5.2 percent, and the number of the minutes used monthly per user increased by 5.6 percent up to 491 minutes.

Uzbekistan currently has five mobile operators - Unitel, Coscom (the subsidiary of the Scandinavian TeliaSonera, trademark Ucel), Rubicon Wireless Communications (RWC, trademark Perfectum Mobile), Uzbektelekom Mobile (Uzmobile) and the Uzbek-Russian company, the Universal Mobile Systems (UMS).