XL performance exceeds last year

Thu, 02/21/2008 12:09 PM  |  Business

JAKARTA: PT Excelcomindo Pratama, one of the nation's largest telecommunications operators, announced Wednesday a 38 percent increase in gross revenue in 2007, exceeding the company's expectation for its GSM brand, XL.

The increase in revenue was accompanied by a 37 percent increase in earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization to Rp 3.5 trillion (about US$380,500), a release said.

Excelcomindo changed its distribution strategy in 2007, switching from the conventional direct distribution to a hybrid method. It followed this by lowering tariffs.

Amidst tight competition with other operators, the company recorded 15.5 million XL users last year, a 62 percent increase from the figure in 2006, more than doubling its usage to 6.8 billion minutes.

The company spent Rp 7.1 trillion ($772.2 million) to expand its coverage, and added 3,897 new base transceiver stations (BTS) last year, giving it a total of 11,157 BTS and reaching 90 percent of the population.

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