Strong contract subscriber growth in Austria
mobilkom austria, the leading mobile operator in Austria, increased its customer base by 8.3% to 4.7 million subscribers at the end of September 2009. This growth was primarily driven by the no-frills brand bob and aonMobil as well as additional SIM cards for mobile broadband.
mobilkom austria maintained its market leadership with a stable market share of 42.4% at the end of 3Q 09 compared to 42.5% at the end of 3Q 08. The mobile penetration rate in Austria rose to 133.0% at the end of September 2009 compared to 122.5% in the previous year due to an increasing number of customers with double SIM cards for both mobile broadband and voice services.
Rising number of mobile broadband net adds
ARPU decreased by 12.6% to EUR 24. 3 as an increase in data usage partly offset lower prices for voice and data as a result of fierce competition, roaming regulation and lower interconnection rates. Average minutes of use charged per subscriber decreased by 5.7% to 159.9 minutes in 3Q 09. mobilkom austria grew its mobile broadband subscriber base by 43.9% and had 500,000 mobile broadband customers at the end of September 2009 compared to 347,500 mobile broadband customers at the end of September 2008. The number of mobile broadband net adds grew to 35,250 in 3Q 09 compared to 22.500 in 3Q 08. Data revenues as a percentage of traffic-related revenues rose from 32.1% in 3Q 08 to 36.7% in 3Q 09.
Price reduction for voice, data, roaming & interconnection
mobilkom austria’ revenues declined by 6.4% to EUR 393.1 million compared to 3Q 08 due to lower prices for voice, data, roaming and interconnection services. Roaming revenues were impacted by tariff cuts mandated by the European Union for retail-active tariffs, wholesale and retail-passive prices by 7% and 14% respectively as of July 1, 2009. Mobile termination rates were reduced to 4 cents as of July 1, 2009 compared to 5.72 cents in the previous year. This reduction led to lower interconnection revenues, which were partly offset by higher usage.
Subscriber acquisition costs increased from EUR 9.0 million in 3Q 08 to EUR 10.9 million in 3Q 09 driven by more expensive handsets. Similarly, subscriber retention costs increased by 19.5% to EUR 22.7 million due to a higher number of replacements as well as higher costs for high quality handsets.
mobilkom austria’s EBITDA decreased by 12.6% to EUR 139.1 million in 3Q 09 compared to 3Q 08, as it was impacted by lower revenues while operating expenses were cut by 2.0%. Operating income decreased by 19.4% to EUR 81. 2 million.