Andrew Colley | August 19, 2008
HUTCHISON Telecommunications Australia has recorded a net loss of $85.4 million for the first half to June - an improvement of 46 per cent compared with the same period last year.
Despite still being the red the company says it's on track to meet its goal to end the year with positive earnings before interest and tax.Hutchison chief executive Nigel Dews said that increased use of mobile data and cuts to its mobile roaming costs from September would allow the company to start recording monthly EBIT profits by the end of the year.
The carrier also grew its customer base 29 per cent to 1.8 million subscribers during the six months to June 2008 as mobile broadband subscriptions soared 322 per cent compared with the same period last year.
At its half year results briefing today, Mr Dews said that data traffic had outstripped voice services on the company's network.
"We expect to have completed key initiatives to provide our customers with access to 3G services in areas covering 96 per cent of the population during the second quarter of 2009.
"The company will exit the year EBIT positive on a monthly basis," Mr Dews said.
The lower roaming charges are part of new agreement with its mobile network roaming partner Telstra. The agreement will also allow 3 to extend its 3G service coverage from 56 per cent of the population to 96 per cent population by the second quarter of next year.
Mr Dews could not confirm when the lower roaming charges would be handed onto consumers when questioned by analysts.
"We're still working through exactly how we want to price and what price we want to put to consumers but I think it would be fair to say our roaming prices will come down," he said.
Mr Dews said that the company's capital expenditure for the coming six months would be on par with the last half leading to a spend of around $150 million.
While its customer numbers have grown the company's average customer income remained flat hovering at around $52 per subscriber.