Earnings: Swisscom Profit Up On Fastweb And Mobile

Swisscom has issued its quarterly earnings for the three months ending June 30. It reported a sharp rise in profit, which it attributed to buying back a 25 percent stake in its mobile business from Vodafone, and its purchase of Italian triple-play provider Fastweb. Net profit was 475 million Swiss francs ($396 million), a 59 percent rise compared to the quarter last year.

–In mobile, the number of customers grew to 4.78 million from 4.47 million and revenues were 1,005 million francs ($843 million) compared to 989 million francs (US$829.1 million). Swisscom says lower revenues from new tariff models and a reduction in termination prices were offset by gains in customer numbers and growth in new data services.

–While domestic growth for mobile Internet services may be limited by the size of Switzerland itself, the carrier is looking to invest in the area internationally as content companies ramp up their strategies and investments in the sector. The company purchased of mobile Internet vendor Minick in December of last year; last week Universal Pictures signed a deal with Minick to develop and manage all its WAP portals starting later this year.

–The operator’s domestic and international broadband subs base continues to grow–currently it stands at 1.51 million in Switzerland and 1.2 million–but some of its new digital content initiatives are far from bringing positive returns. In the six months to 30 June 2007, its Microsoft-based Bluewin TV service and Betty, its interactive TV remote control product, both launched only domestically, accounted for a decline in EBITDA of 44 million francs ($37 million) and 60 million francs ($50 million) respectively.

Release | Link to teleconference

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