Bezeq The Israeli Telecommunication Co. Ltd. (TASE: BEZQ) cellular subsidiary Pelephone Communications Ltd. published its financial report for the second quarter of 2009 today. The mobile carrier posted a 13.3% rise in profit to NIS 1.35 billion for the second quarter compared with NIS 1.19 billion for the corresponding quarter of 2008.
Operating profit rose 20.7% to NIS 321 million for the second quarter from NIS 266 million for the corresponding quarter, and net profit rose 29.4% to NIS 233 million from NIS 180 million.
Pelephone added a net 100,000 new subscribers over the past 12 months, 2.2% growth, to 2.69 million at the end of June, of whom 1.31 million were 3G subscribers, 33.8% more than a year earlier. 3G subscribers now account for 48% of all Pelephone subscribers. The company also had 340,000 subscribers on its new HSPA network at the end of June.
Revenue from data, content and value-added services rose to 19.2% of total revenue from wireless services in the second quarter, up from 15.5% in the corresponding quarter. Minutes of use (MOU) fell 8.1% to 329 minutes in the second quarter from 355 minutes in the corresponding quarter. Average revenue per user (ARPU) rose 2.3% to NIS 131 in the second quarter. The company said that its ARPU and MOU were affected by the elimination of 92,000 dormant subscribers at the end of 2008 and the switch to per second billing from 12-second billing in January 2009.
Pelephone announced that it has promised Apple Inc. (Nasdaq: AAPL) to buy a minimum number of iPhones over three years. Pelephone estimates the cost at 4% of total annual services and sales costs over this period.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on August 5, 2009
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