Pelephone had 2.68 million subscribers at the end of
September, 5.5% fewer than the2.84 million a year earlier.
Bezeq Israeli Telecommunication Co. Ltd. (TASE: BEZQ) mobile subsidiaryPelephone Communications Ltd. today reported lower revenue and profits for the third quarter of 2013, as it seeks to create new sources of revenue. Revenue fell 9.7% to NIS 947 million for the third quarter from NIS 1.05 billion for the corresponding quarter of 2012, and net profit fell 9.1% to NIS 140 million from NIS 154 million.
Mobile services revenue fell 13% to NIS 710 million for the third quarter from NIS 816 million for the corresponding quarter, but handset sales revenue rose 1.7% to NIS 237 million from NIS 233 million. The fall in mobile services revenue was partially offset by higher wholesale revenue from communication operators hosted on Pelephone’s network.
Cash flow from operations fell 10% to NIS 442 million for the third quarter from NIS 490 million for the corresponding quarter.
Pelephone had 2.68 million subscribers at the end of September, 5.5% fewer than the 2.84 million a year earlier. The churn rate fell to 6.2% in the third quarter from 6.9% in the preceding quarter and 6.7% in the corresponding quarter.
Average revenue per user (ARPU) fell 7.4% to NIS 88 per month in the third quarter NIS 95 for the corresponding quarter, but average minutes of use (MOU) per user rose 8% to 459 minutes per month from 425 minutes.
Pelephone CEO Gil Sharon, “Despite the continued presence of aggressive campaigns from some of our competitors in the highly competitive market for cellular services during the quarter, sequential revenues increased as higher levels of customer activity and roaming revenues rose with summer travel and the timing of holidays in the third quarter. Alongside the sequential increase in revenues, we continued streamlining our operations, and in the first nine months of the year we cut approximately NIS 223 million from our expenses compared with the same period last year. Pelephone services, we are continuing to create new sources of revenue, such as our new cloud storage service launched this quarter.”