The Australian, 10 Feb 2009, Mitchell Bingemann
STEADY growth in mobile and wireless broadband sales has helped Optus weather the economic downturn to post a flat third-quarter net profit of $143 million.
However, it represented a mere 0.4 per cent increase compared with the same period last year.
Revenue for the telco was up 10 per cent for the three months ending December 31, 2008 to $2.2 billion, thanks to strong growth in its mobile business which raked in $1.33 billion in revenue.
Mobile and wireless broadband subscribers increased by 213,000 in the quarter, bringing the total number of mobile services customers to 7.6 million for Optus and its subsidiary, Virgin Mobile.
But higher acquisition costs in mobile and wireless broadband saw Optus's mobile earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) fall by 5.3 per cent in the quarter to $340 million.
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