Telenor Reports Single Digit Growth in Revenues, Lower ARPU During Q3 2013

Telenor Pakistan has posted PKR 69.725 billion in revenues for first nine months of on-going fiscal year, up from PKR 66.645 billion during same duration last year.

Currency depreciation, however, resulted into 4 percent Y-o-Y fall in revenues in Norwegian Kroner that stood at NOK 4065 million — for three quarters combined — as compared to NOK 4,232 million during same period last year.

The Telenor Group reported its third quarter financial results during the weekend where it said that Telenor Pakistan, during the reported quarter, showed an operating profit of NOK 282 million, versus an operating loss of NOK 95 million in Q3 2012.

Financial services contributed 2.5 percentage to the total revenue growth.

The EBITDA margin improved by 2 percentage points following higher revenues, savings from energy initiatives and negative one-time effects last year. The impact of introduction of ICH contributed negatively with 3 percentage points.

EBITDA in local currency increased by 12%.

Capital expenditure decreased as the network modernisation was finalised during the quarter, also resulting in reduced accelerated depreciation and improved operating profit

Company said that its ARPU in local currency decreased by 10%, mainly because of fierce on-net competition putting pressure on national interconnect revenues.

ARPU for postpaid users was reported at PKR 686, compared to PKR 190 ARPU for prepaid users.

ARPUs were also impacted by the fact that revenues from incoming international traffic through International Clearing House (ICH) are now accounted under non-mobile revenues and are not added into ARPU levels.

Telenor said that its subscribers increased by 160,000 during the quarter including a downward adjustment of 542,000 subscriptions following data cleaning exercise.

Telenor’s Average traffic minutes per user per month stood at 225.

Telenor Pakistan Announces Two Representatives for Youth Summit 2013

Telenor Pakistan has announced Saad Hamid (right) and Awais Imran (left) as representatives from Pakistan at the Telenor Youth Summit 2013 in Oslo, Norway, which is being organized in collaboration with the Nobel Peace Center.

Telenor Pakistan has announced Saad Hamid and Awais Imran as representatives from Pakistan at the Telenor Youth Summit 2013 in Oslo, Norway, which is being organized in collaboration with the Nobel Peace Center.

The two winners of the qualifying competition will also get a chance to attend the Nobel Peace Prize Ceremony and Concert.

The competition attracted over 260 entries towards bringing positive social change through the use of mobile communication and internet. As per the judging format, more than 100 shortlisted ideas were displayed on the djuice website for public voting, the entries received a total of 6,670 votes. 11 top voted ideas were presented by the candidates to a jury comprising Badar Khushnood, Pakistan Country Consultant for Google Inc., Jehan Ara, President Pakistan Software Houses Association and Usman Javaid, Director Marketing, Telenor Pakistan.

The two winners – Saad Hamid and Awais Imran were triumphant for their ideas titled ’60 second education project’ and ‘Learning a new language using Mobile ICT’ respectively.

Atifa Asghar, Director Corporate Communications and Responsibility, Telenor Pakistan lauded the enthusiasm of all the contestants and said; “We at Telenor believe that mobile internet will continue to serve as a catalyst for growth and create opportunities for all. The competition, in line with our ‘Internet for All’ campaign, helped us find young future leaders and presented their dynamic ideas to deal with pressing societal issues. The global summit will provide these two winners with an opportunity to be heard at a global level.”

The Telenor Youth Summit, which will be held from December 9 to 11, is a new global initiative of Telenor Group.

It is conceived as a place for exchanging opinions on ways in which mobile communication technologies stimulate growth and change the society. The host of the Summit will be Jon Fredrik Baksaas, CEO of Telenor Group.

During the Summit, young people from 13 countries of Telenor operations together with Telenor Functional Experts and already established Change Makers will further develop the ideas to be presented at the Nobel Peace Centre, as well as at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona in 2014.