Metromedia International Group, the US-based majority owner of Georgian cellco Magticom, has released the operator’s results for the first six months of 2007. Highlights included a 20% year-on-year improvement in revenues to USD92 million, a 15% y-o-y increase in EBITDA to USD57.3 million, and a 7% drop in monthly average revenue per unit (ARPU) to USD12.04. MagtiCom’s subscriber base at 30 June 2007 stood at 995,080, up 27% from 783,850 a year earlier. Average monthly minutes per subscriber (AMPU) was 76.25 for the six months ended 30 June 2007, down 17% from the corresponding period of 2006.
The increase in revenue is attributed to the growth in subscribers and increased usage of both voice and value added data services. In spite of this, ARPU was lower, reflecting a lower level of spending by the most recently acquired subscribers, who are increasingly drawn from the lower-income bracket, compared with the more affluent customers who signed up earlier on in the cellco’s history. This is seen as a common consequence of increasing market penetration, and MagtiCom anticipates that ARPU and AMPU will continue to decline in the future. According to TeleGeography’s GlobalComms database, quoting figures from the Georgian National Communications Commission, mobile penetration stood at 38.4% at the end of 2006.