telecommunications — english language news service
23.07.2008« [telecommunications — телекоммуникация — telekommunikation]
netherlands — kpn q2 profit down 12%
The Netherlands largest telecoms group by revenues, Royal KPN, said its net income for the three months to June fell 12% year-on-year as a result of higher tax expenses and operating costs, but raised its full-year 2008 EBITDA guidance for domestic earnings to ‘flat’ from a previously anticipated decrease. The telco’s net income fell to EUR353 million (USD557 million) in the second quarter, down from EUR401 million in the corresponding period of 2007, despite a 22% rise in turnover to EUR3.66 billion – driven by its EUR766 million acquisition of Hague-based computer-services provider Getronics last year. Group second-quarter EBITDA fell to EUR1.27 billion from EUR1.28 billion a year ago, broadly in line with market expectations.
The operator’s CEO Ad Scheepbouwer told reporters that new services introduced in its home market such as VoIP, IPTV and wireless broadband were expanding quickly while declines in its traditional core telephony businesses were slowing. Around 40,000 customers disconnected their fixed line in the April-June period, marking a steady improvement from the 165,000 who switched off in the first quarter of 2007. Meanwhile, revenues from wireless data almost doubled in the second quarter from the corresponding period a year ago, he said. EBITDA in KPN’s home market slipped by just point seven of one percent to EUR900 million in the period under review, eclipsing the EUR884 million figure forecast by analysts in a Bloomberg poll. KPN says EBITDA at the division will be ‘flat’ in FY 2008, at around EUR3.31 billion. Its previous forecast was for EBITDA to fall by up to EUR100 million.
Internationally, KPN’s German unit E-Plus added a net 780,000 customers in Q2, the biggest increase since 2000, and BASE in Belgium once again reported strong growth in service revenues.
Source: TeleGeography's CommsUpdate
base belgium
BASE is the third largest of Belgium's three mobile telecommunications operators. It competes with Proximus, owned by Belgian state owned telco Belgacom, and Mobistar, a subsidiary of France Télécom. BASE is a mobile phone brand operated by KPN in Belgium and Germany. BASE was founded as Belgium's third mobile network operator in 1999 under the brand name of KPN Orange. It was a joint-venture between the Dutch KPN Mobile and the, then, Britisch Orange Mobile telcos. After the take-over of Orange mobile by France Télécom it's shares in the company were sold to KPN Mobile. After a few years the brand name was changed from Orange to BASE. BASE has an estimated 98% coverage of the country and 23 % market share.
e-plus
E-Plus Mobilfunk is the third largest wireless telecommunications provider in Germany, trailing only T-Mobile and Vodafone. E-Plus provides its nearly 10 million customers with mobile voice and data services, including phone, e-mail, multimedia, prepaid calling cards, and Internet access. The company has launched Simyo, a low-cost, no-frills mobile service. E-Plus, which targets private consumers and business customers, also offers advertising on its network. The company is part of the KPN Mobile subsidiary of Dutch telecommunications giant Royal KPN.
kpn
KPN N.V. is a telecommunications and ICT service provider in The Netherlands, offering wireline and wireless telephony, Internet and television to consumers and end-to-end telecom and ICT services to business customers. The Companys subsidiary Getronics N.V. (Getronics) operates a global ICT services company, offering end-to-end solutions in infrastructure and network-related information technology (IT). KPN provides wholesale network services to third parties and operates an Internet protocol (IP)-based infrastructure with global scale in international wholesale through iBasis Inc., (iBasis). In October 2007, the Company acquired 51% of iBasis, in exchange for the KPN Global Carrier Services business unit. In October 2007, KPN acquired Getronics, an international provider of ICT services and solutions, based in The Netherlands. KPN also acquired Tele2/Versatel, a Belgium service provider for voice, Internet and data to residential, business and carrier customers.
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