Telecom Argentina Capex (capital expenditure) rose 16 percent to $283 million (P$1,554 million) in the first half of 2013.
Capex is 12 percent of consolidated revenues.
The telecoms invested P$671 million in fixed services and P$883 million in mobile services.
In fixed business, Telecom Argentina focused on reconversion plan of the network. It replaced copper with fiber optic cables in different points (FTTC or Fiber to the cabinet, FTTB or Fiber to the building and FTTH or Fiber to the home).
As part of its investment strategy, it also invested in new access technologies such as VDSL/GPON allowing broadband speeds to reach up to 100 Mbps. This evolution to new architectures and technologies provides higher speeds and optimizes service quality in terms of stability and availability, improving the customer experience.
In the mobile business, Telecom Argentina focused on the optimization of 2G and 3G/HSPA+ services in the country, increasing capacity spectrum usage efficiency. It is expected to double the capacity of the 3G network in 2013.
Meanwhile, Telecom Argentina’s revenues rose 22 percent to P$12,713 million in H1 2013.
Out of this, fixed data revenue increased 30 percent; fixed internet grew 29 percent; and mobile business in Argentina was up 24 percent.
Mobile subscribers in Argentina reached 19.3 million by adding 0.6 million users.
Mobile value added services in Argentina (Internet and Data) increased 33 percent. Mobile VAS accounts for 56 percent of mobile service revenues.
Mobile ARPU increased 17 percent to P$63.8 per month.
ADSL ARPU increased to P$119.3 per month.
Net income rose 14 percent to P$1,475 million.
Telecom Argentina says data revenues increased 30 percent to P$441 million.
Revenues related to Internet increased 29 percent to P$1,191 million due to increase in the customer base, the upselling strategy and price adjustments.
As of June 30, 2013, Telecom Argentina surpassed 1.6 million ADSL accesses (+3 percent vs. 1H12). These connections represented 40 percent of the operator’s fixed lines in service. ADSL ARPU rose 24 percent to P$119.3.
