Brazilian fixed and wireless carrier TIM Participacoes (TIM Brasil) reported net income of BRL372 million (USD168.3 million) for the three months ended 31 March 2014, an increase of 21.6% from BRL306 million in the year-earlier period, although revenues dipped marginally to BRL4.702 billion from BRL4.711 billion over the same period. The group said the top-line figure was impacted by a government-led cut in mobile termination rates (MTRs). Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) totalled BRL1.317 billion, up 8% year-on-year, with EBITDA margin at 28%. CAPEX for the first quarter stood at BRL613 million, on top of the BRL3.8 billion spent in FY2014, with more than 94% allocated to infrastructure. TIM Brasil reported that in 1Q14 it added a total of 111 new 3G sites (total 9,185), 208 4G sites (total 2,133) and 190 Wi-Fi hotspots (total 904).
Operationally speaking, TIM Brasil had a total of 73.9 million mobile subscribers at end-March 2014, up 3.8% y-o-y to consolidate its number two position in the market behind Telefonica (Vivo) with 78.5 million. Moreover, TIM said that in the January-March period, data users increased by 20% y-o-y to reach 36% of its total base, with 3G subscribers standing at 26.6 million – up 85% on the previous year. The cellco’s post-paid customer base was up 12% y-o-y (or 16% higher when stripping out dongles and M2M connections). Further, the carrier’s ‘Live TIM’ branded fibre broadband based totalled 75,000 at the end of 1Q14, up a net 14,700 in the quarter, as the addressable households passed moved past the 1.1 million mark. TIM said that in 2014 it intends to expand its fibre-to-the-site (FTTS) rollout to take in another 31 cities across Brazil.