CosmOTE enjoys a surge in subscribers
Mobile phone company CosmOTE said yesterday that its customer base exceeded the 3-million mark at the end of March, making it the first in the sector to break the barrier and also underlining the difficulties ahead for mobile operators as the market matures. CosmOTE, which is majority-controlled by telecoms operator OTE, said active subscribers increased by 34.6 percent year-on-year to 3.07 million at the end of the first quarter of the year. Net new connections totaled 131,536 in the three-month period, of which 80.2 percent were prepaid customers and the remaining 19.8 percent contract users. The figure was the smallest increase quarter-on-quarter since 1999 and points to a saturated market, said Konstantinos Karitsos, telecoms analyst at Intersec. CosmOTE said the mobile penetration rate at the end of 2001 was estimated at 73 percent and is forecast to rise to 80 percent by year-end. Contract subscribers at the end of March amounted to 1.49 million, up 14 percent, while prepaid users rose by a strong 62 percent to 1.59 million. Subscriber figures, however, are losing ground as an indicator of the strength of a mobile phone company, said Karitsos. «These figures are not so significant in terms of what they can tell us about a company. More important are the number of active customers and the company’s average revenues per user,» he said. AMC, CosmOTE’s subsidiary in Albania, continued to dominate in the Balkan country, notching up 33,417 new connections in the first quarter of the year, which boosted its customer base to 302,396 at the end of the three-month period. This marked a 11.7-percent increase quarter-on-quarter and a 284-percent hike year-on-year. The company could find the going tougher this year as Panafon’s Albanian subsidiary starts making its presence felt. CosmOTE and Panafon are expected to cut rates this year after the National Telecommunications and Post Commission last month ruled that both companies have a significant influence in the local market. It called on both operators to reduce their call termination charges for fixed-to-mobile calls, which are among the highest in the eurozone. Lowering rates could hurt the companies’ balance sheets, said Karitsos, and also intensify competition. In Athens, Olympic announced yesterday that its efforts during the privatization period and the start of 2002 boosted its share of its home market to 58 percent in January-March from 49 percent the year before.
