MTS, a telecom service provider in Russia and CIS, today indicated an increase in its Capex (Capital spending) plan for 2014.
The telecoms said Capex spending for 2014 is expected to be 21 percent of revenue. MTS expects 3-5 percent revenue growth in 2014. In 2013, revenue for the Group grew 5 percent to over 398 billion rubles.
MTS, which has presence in the Indian telecom market through a joint venture, said its investments will include network enhancement and key projects such as on-going roll out of LTE networks throughout Russia, enhancements to 3G networks, continued deployment of GPON in Moscow and Moscow region, network improvements and equipment swaps in Ukraine, maintenance CAPEX in Armenia and build out of 3G networks in Turkmenistan.
Andrei Dubovskov, president and CEO of MTS, said: “In all of our markets we see rising usage of voice and strong data adoption in virtually all customer segments. In Russia, we continue to realize benefits through data adoption from our focus in retail on sales of low-cost devices as we lead the market in data penetration through smartphones.”
MTS performance
MTS consolidated revenues increased 5 percent to RUB 398 billion. Its mobile service revenue in Russia rose 7 percent to RUB 273 billion. Data traffic revenue in Russia grew 43 percent to RUB 47 billion.
Consolidated net income of RUB 20 billion in Q4 2013 and a net income of RUB 80 billion in FY 2013
In 2013, MTS expanded its LTE networks and launched services in Pskov Region, Kirov Region, North Ossetia-Alania, Khabarovsk Krai, Udmurtia, Zabaikalsky Krai, Amur Krai, Rostov region, Kaluga region, Novosibirsk region, Tatarstan and St. Petersburg.
It also launched sales of iPhone 5s/5c in the MTS retail network. In 2014, MTS expects growth in data revenues through higher penetration of smartphones and data-enabled devices.
One of the drivers of growth in 2013 was adoption of data plans as smartphone penetration among its active subscribers reached 34 percent, and data attach rate increased to over 42 percent. In Q4 2013, this contributed to an increase in data traffic of 49 percent.
