America Movil, a leading telecom operator in Latin America, today reported its financial and operating results for the first quarter of 2019.
America Movil said its first quarter revenue dropped 3.1 percent to 245.7 billion pesos as a result of depreciation in most of its operating currencies.
America Movil generated 30.5 percent of its total revenue from post-paid mobile, 33.3 percent from pre-paid mobile, 34.3 percent from fixed bundles and 1.9 percent from fixed voice business.
America Movil achieved 9.9 percent increase in fixed-broadband revenue and 6.8 percent growth in post-paid mobile revenue. America Movil’s PayTV revenues declined 3 percent during the quarter.
America Movil reported EBITDA of 75 billion pesos with EBITDA margin of 30.6 percent in the quarter. Operating profit was 35.4 billion pesos, while net profit was 19.4 billion pesos in the quarter.
5G plans
America Movil CEO Daniel Hajj said the telecom operator will not increase its Capex for the year from $8.5 billion despite keeping aside funds for 5G trails and 5G network build-outs in several countries.
America Movil aims to start 5G network in 2020. America Movil will be buying 5G spectrum in countries such as Argentina, Chile, Guatemala, Honduras, Panama, Paraguay and Peru. It acquired 5G spectrum in Austria. Some cities in Austria will receive 5G services at the end of 2019.
America Movil’s wireless subscriber base reached 277.4 million subscribers including 1.4 million from the acquisition of Telefonica Guatemala.
America Movil said the post-paid subscriber base rose 6.4 percent to 83.6 million. It added 1.5 million post-paid subscribers, including 972 thousand in Brazil, 201 thousand in Mexico, 159 thousand from the acquisition in Guatemala and 96 thousand in Austria.
America Movil disconnected 1.1 million pre-paid subscribers. America Movil’s prepaid user base touched 192.4 million, registering a drop of 4.1 percent.
America Movil has 84.3 million fixed customers (+1.4 percent). America Movil connected 463 thousand broadband accesses, including 74 thousand in Brazil, bringing the total to 30.2 million (+5.6 percent).
America Movil’s PayTV units reached 21.4 thousand (–0.9 percent) due to disconnections of DTH services in Brazil.
America Movil Capex
America Movil said its first quarter capital expenditures touched 28 billion pesos.
America Movil connected 463 thousand broadband accesses including 193 thousand in Central America and 74 thousand in Brazil.
America Movil expanded fiber networks in Paraguay. America Movil started the deployment of fiber networks in a few new cities in Argentina.
America Movil’s Brazil business said its FTTH deployment reached 30 cities targeting high-speed broadband.
America Movil’s Caribbean business made important improvements in fiber platforms and upgraded networks with the latest technologies.
