Continuation of good financial results as well as investments in speed increase and service coverage
- Continuing investments in fibre infrastructure and mobile network modernization, Ookla awards for top mobile network quality
- Increase in the number of users of Magenta 1 and ‘Moj Telekom’ app
- Smart parking project in Dubrovnik implemented, the award of ‘Microsoft’s best partner in Croatia’ won
Hrvatski Telekom (Reuters: HT.ZA; Bloomberg: HTRA CZ), Croatia’s leading telecommunications provider, announces its unaudited consolidated results for the first six months of the year 2019.
Continuation of good financial results
The total consolidated revenue in the first half of 2019 amounted to 3,695 million HRK, which is a 0.4% increase compared to the same period last year. The reason behind this positive development is primarily an increase in the revenues of System Solutions and Mobile Communications.
In the first six months of 2019, EBITDA before exceptional items after leases amounted to 1,403 million HRK, which is by 1.3% lower compared to the same period of the previous year. A high EBITDA contribution margin after leases was maintained, and it amounted to 38%.
Compared to the same period in 2018, net profit after non-controlling interests was increased by 5 million HRK, i.e. by 1.2%, and amounted to 438 million HRK.
Continuing investment in infrastructure, Ookla awards for top quality mobile network
Hrvatski Telekom continued with its capital investments. In the first half of 2019, a total of 729 million HRK was invested, mostly in the modernization of fixed and mobile network infrastructure. Compared to the first half of 2018, investments were lower due to seasonality. With respect to capital investments outlook for the entire 2019, it remains the same as previously announced, i.e. approximately at the level of the capital investments in 2018.
Fibre-based access network (FTTx) is available to 420 thousand households. In mobile network, the outdoor 4G population coverage is 99%, and the indoor population coverage reached 85%. Also, Hrvatski Telekom continued with its big mobile radio and transport networks modernization program across Croatia, as well increasing the capacities of its 4G network. The reason for this was to be able to meet the ever-growing demand for data services, especially notable in the tourist areas of Croatia. 64% of the network has been modernized so far. The network has been modernized in Istria, Zagreb County, in the city of Zagreb and along the entire coastline. In these areas of Croatia, a speed increase of as much as 30 percent has been enabled. Network modernization in other parts of Croatia will also be finished until the end of this year, and the network will be fully ready for the implementation of 5G technology.
Hrvatski Telekom is currently preparing for 5G implementation within its mobile network modernization project. A pilot 5G network testing in 3.5 GHz in the area of app. ten base stations in Croatia is underway, with the aim to achieve a better insight into the state of technology and its performance in real-life conditions. One of the results achieved was a speed higher than 1 Gbit/s on a commercial 5G device, which was measured in the streets of the city of Krk by Speed test.
In June, Hrvatski Telekom won the Ookla awards verifying the top quality of its mobile network. HT received the following awards: ‘Fastest Mobile Network’ for the fastest mobile network in Croatia and ‘Best Coverage Award’ for the best coverage. The awards were given out by Ookla, the world’s leader in testing and analysis of the Internet. Ookla compared user speed tests at Speedtest iOS and Android mobile applications among all mobile operators in Croatia during the first and the second quarter of 2019. Hrvatski Telekom achieved significantly better results in the speeds for mobile download and upload as well as in mobile coverage compared to other mobile operators in Croatia. According to Ookla, the network of Hrvatski Telekom is among the 10 best networks in the world. In Europe, only the Netherlands achieved better results than Croatia.
Continued increase in users of Magenta 1 and Moj Telekom app
The number of users of HT’s unique concept of converged offer, Magenta 1, continues to grow and a total of 227 thousand households and 30 thousand business users currently use Magenta 1.
‘Moj Telekom’ app is the key lever for the digitalization of user experience. It enables users to have a detailed overview of all fixed and mobile telco services and consumption, enables bills payment, a simple activation of e-bill and management of tariffs and options, and also gives an overview of the Internet availability through an interactive map. The use of the ‘Moj Telekom’ app is growing strongly and, at the end of the first half of the year 2019, the app had 233 thousand users.
Smart parking project in Dubrovnik and the award of ‘the best Microsoft partner in Croatia’
Hrvatski Telekom was the leader of the smart parking implementation project for the area of the entire city of Dubrovnik, thanks to which 1,900 sensors were set up with the aim to facilitate finding free parking spots and decreasing traffic jams. This project is part of a series of activities under the umbrella project ‘Dubrovnik Smart City’, and it was realized at HT’s top-notch NB-IoT network. Hrvatski Telekom’s strategic orientation is to facilitate setting up smart cities and to support their digital transformation by using modern technologies to increase the quality of life of their citizens, optimize local resources and develop entrepreneurship.
Hrvatski Telekom won the award of ‘the best Microsoft partner in Croatia’ for the year 2019. For the first time in Croatia, Microsoft, the world’s biggest software company, gave out this award to a company whose core business is not IT. The reason for this was the fact that HT was recognized as one of the best Microsoft’s partners for innovation excellence and implementation of user solutions based on Microsoft technologies globally. Microsoft and Hrvatski Telekom have been intensively collaborating with respect to business cloud services offering, in particular Office 365 and Microsoft 365.
Commenting on the business results for the first half of the year 2019, Konstantinos Nempis, the CEO of Hrvatski Telekom, stated: "We at Hrvatski Telekom would like to create a world of better opportunities, facilitating the benefits of digitalization so that all Croatian citizens could have an equal opportunity for a high-quality life. I am proud because the result, which the company achieved at the end of the first half of the year 2019, is both a result of our investment in the top-notch technology, but also a confirmation of how determined we are in fulfilling our promise. Through a combination of fixed and mobile technologies and fibre infrastructure and fibre-based access, Hrvatski Telekom will provide the inhabitants of both urban and rural areas with 50 percent higher speeds, enabling them to have more opportunities to work flexibly, to have fun, to find information quickly and to communicate. Apart from that, we are continuing to develop new functionalities of ‘My Telekom’ app to enable a fast and simple user experience, and we are continuing to introduce the agile approach in the company’s business operations so that we can provide our customers with the opportunities of digitalization even more successfully."