Telecom Lead Buenos Aires: Telecom Argentina has spent P$3.257 billion as Capex (capital expenditure) in 2012, up 2 percent over 2011.
P$3.257 billion is 15 percent of Telecom Argentina’s consolidated revenues.
Its capex of P$3,257 million was allocated to fixed services (P$1,429 million) and mobile services (P$1,828 million).
Telecom Argentina has invested in the fixed business for expanding and upgrading broadband services to improve capacity and increase speed offered to clients through the shortening of the local loop together with the development of infrastructure to support the growth of mobile internet.
In the mobile business, Telecom Argentina continued its 3G network deployment with the intention of increasing access capacity and sustaining the growth of mobile Internet.
Moreover, Telecom Argentina continued investing in the transport network to support the fixed and mobile data traffic growth.
Meanwhile, Telecom Argentina — which announced a new CEO on Monday — said its revenues increased 20 percent to P$22,117 million.
Mobile services, broadband business and fixed data contributed to the significant increase in revenue.
The company’s fixed Internet revenue grew 28 percent, while fixed data increased 26 percent.
Mobile business in Argentina posted 22 percent increase in revenue.
While mobile subscribers in Argentina was 19 million, up 4 percent, its mobile value added services in Argentina (Internet and Data) grew 33 percent and 53 percent of service revenues.
Mobile ARPU reached P$57.7 per month in 2012, 12 percent.
Net Income increased 7 percent to P$2,685 million.
During 2012, the overall traffic of voice minutes increased by 7 percent.
SMS traffic (incoming and outgoing charged messages) continued to increase, although at a slower pace, due to other Internet alternatives provided by Personal.
The traffic climbed to a monthly average of 5,769 million in FY12 from 5,587 million messages in FY11 (+3 percent vs. FY11).
Total Revenues for this service reached P$3,214 million in FY12 (+4 percent vs. FY11).
Revenues related to Internet totaled P$1,993 million (+ P$440 million or +28 percent vs. FY11), mainly due to the continued expansion of broadband services.
Data revenues amounted to P$735 million (+26 percent vs. FY11), where the focus was to strengthen Telecom’s position as an integrated ICT provider, with a wide variety of services.
As of December 31, 2012, Telecom surpassed 1.6 million ADSL accesses (+5 percent vs. FY11). These connections represented 39 percent of Telecom’s fixed lines in service. In addition, ADSL ARPU reached approximately P$102.3 in FY12, +18 percent when compared to FY11 and the monthly churn rate was 1.4 percent in FY12, continuing at low levels.