Cellcom Israel has reported total net revenue of NIS1.58bn for the first quarter of 2010, an increase of 1.2% compared to NIS1.56bn for the same period last year.
The company’s EBITDA increased by 1.8% to NIS638m from NIS627m for the same period last year. Operating income was NIS457m during the quarter, compared to NIS437m for the same period a year ago.
For the first quarter of 2010, the company posted a net income of NIS314m, a decrease of 9% compared to a net income of NIS345m for the same quarter a year ago.
Total services revenues grew by 3% year-over-year to NIS1.4bn from NIS1.37bn, while revenues from content and value added services grew by 24.3% to NIS251m from NIS202m. Handset and accessories revenues were down by 11.7% to NIS166m from NIS188m for the same period last year.
Subscriber base increased approximately 21,000, reaching 3.313 million at the end of March 2010, while 3G subscribers reached approximately 1.037 million.
Amos Shapira, chief executive officer of Cellcom Israel, said: Cellcom Israel continues its strong performance in the first quarter of 2010 with sustained growth in service revenues, EBITDA, EBITDA margin, operating income and subscriber base.
“We are satisfied with the improvement in the growth rate of airtime minutes, which totaled 4.8% in the first quarter this year compared to 2.5% in the first quarter last year, as well as the service revenues growth, totaled 3% this quarter compared to 1.1% in the first quarter last year. Furthermore, in the first quarter 2010, we continued to expand our 3G subscriber base, reaching 1.037 million at the end of March 2010, representing 31.3% of our total subscriber base.”
