KATHMANDU, OCT 19 -TeliaSonera, parent company of Ncell , said on Thursday that Ncell ’s net sales soared 28.6 percent in the third quarter of 2013. The company said that the growth was driven by a higher number of subscriptions and strong growth in data.
As per the Q3 financial report released by the company, Ncell ’s net sales reached 2,256 million Swedish kroner (SEK) - equivalent to Rs 34.3 billion - at the end of Q3 with a 10.8 million subscriber base. By the same period last year, net sales of Ncell were at SEK 2,000 million.
“Growth was strongest in Nepal and Kazakhstan with a rise of 2.2 million and 1.6 million to 10.8 million and 14.3 million subscriptions respectively,” said the Q3 report. During the quarter, Nepal and Uzbekistan showed the largest rises with additions of 0.4 million subscriptions each.
The multinational telecom company has been witnessing good revenue growth in the Eurasian market, supported by increasing data consumption and subscription growth. The Eurasian market includes Ncell , Kcell in Kazakhstan, Azercell in Azerbaijan, Ucell in Uzbekistan, Tcell in Tajikistan, Geocell in Georgia and Moldcell in Moldova.
Ncell ’s user base had crossed the 10-million mark during the Q2. It has been offering different data packages to customers to increase its share in the data market amid increasing competition with state-owned Nepal Telecom. Recently, the company launched bundling schemes which enable customers to obtain a certain amount of data free of cost with purchase of a handset.
As per the Nepal Telecommunications Authority (NTA), the number of data users of Ncell reached 3.55 million as of mid-August 2013. Milan Sharma, corporate communication expert of Ncell , said that there was significant growth in demand for data service besides voice. “Our 3G service sites are increasing, and so is the number of subscribers, mainly youngsters who use data more,” he added.
TeliaSonera has significant investments in telecom operations in Nepal, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Georgia, Moldova, Russia and Turkey. It pulled out of Nepal Satellite Telecom (NST) amid complexities last month.
According to the Q3 report, divestment of NST resulted in a loss of SEK 389 million. It has stated that the exit would help it to focus on Ncell and “reduce the business risk and complexity of its involvement in Nepal”. TeliaSonera had reached an agreement to sell back its indirect investment to Zhodar Investment.
No comments:
Post a Comment