Postpaid revenue drives Claro Brasil results

América Móvil's Claro Brasil, which includes the operations of Claro, NET and Embratel, saw its revenues increase 1.1% year-over-year to 8.95bn reais (US$2.77bn) in the fourth quarter of 2017 driven, mostly, by a 10.7% jump in the mobile revenues, which hit 2.69bn reais.

The good performance on mobile is explained by a greater addition of postpaid clients, which generate higher average revenue per user (ARPU), and includes the migration of prepaid customers to the hybrid control plans as well as to postpaid plans.

The company's ARPU, for instance, grew 10.2% in the quarter compared to the year-ago period, reaching 16 reais.

According to data from regulator Anatel, Claro's mobile base increased by 11.1% in Q4 over the year before. The carrier added nearly 1mn postpaid clients in the period.

Fixed service revenues fell 1.6% to 5.89bn reais, impacted by decreasing demand for fixed telephony and DTH pay TV services.

Full-year revenues dropped 0.8%, to 35.5bn reais, with revenues from mobile telephony rising 5.7% to 10.4bn reais and fixed services revenues declining 0.8% to 23.8bn reais.