Telecom service provider TeliaSonera on Thursday said its capital spending (Capex) reached $1.48 billion in the first nine months of 2013. 4G is driving its Capex.
In the third quarter of 2013, TeliaSonera Capex was $563.08 million. Capex in the latest quarter was relatively higher as compared with the third quarter of 2012.
The main focus of its spending was high speed internet through 4G / LTE and fiber.
The telecom major invested 9.3 percent of sales as Capex in mobile services, 14.7 percent in broadband and 20.5 percent in Eurasia during the third quarter. These Capex figures do not include license fee and spectrum.
The Swedish telecom giant will maintain its earlier forecast Capex for the full year.
Meanwhile, TeliaSonera sales decreased 1.8 percent to SEK 25,381 million in Q3 2013 from SEK 25,842 million.
EBITDA, excluding non-recurring items, increased 1.5 percent to SEK 9,419 million from SEK 9,283 million.
Net income increased 15.1 percent to SEK 4,641 million ($717 million) in Q3 from SEK 4,032 million due to TeliaSonera initiatives in cost cutting.
During nine months, TeliaSonera sales decreased 3.4 percent to SEK 75,197 million.
Net income decreased 1.7 percent to SEK 12,780 million.
TeliaSonera is adding users in its Eurasian unit, with operations in Turkey, Russia and several former Soviet Union countries, while managing declining sales in its home market as competition and lower fees hurt prices, Bloomberg reported.
The Stockholm-based company, which made more than 60 percent of its revenue in the Nordic region last year, is also cutting jobs and focusing more on data revenue to boost profitability.
Its mobile business boosted Ebitda 4.8 percent to 3.83 billion kronor, even as sales dropped 2.1 percent to 12.2 billion kronor because of lower rates from connecting calls from rivals’ networks, a fee that is regulated.
Johan Dennelind, president and CEO of TeliaSonera, said: “Demand for mobile data remains strong and our new data centric pricing models continue to gain traction across Scandinavia. It is particularly encouraging to report positive billed revenue growth in all three markets where these price plans have been introduced, reinforcing our view that we are on the right track.”