Telecom Argentina investments drop in January-September

Telecom Argentina invested 372bn pesos (US$347mn) in January-September this year, down 18.2% compared with the first nine months of last year.

The company had previously stated that it would invest around US$500mn this year.

Including usage rights expenses for infrastructure and property leases, among other things, investments for the first nine months totalled 538bn pesos, down 7% year-on-year.

The company invested 13% of its revenue, excluding those usage rights. Most of the investments went on expanding cable TV and internet services, improving transmission and access speeds offered to customers, increasing coverage, and upping mobile network capacity by replacing radio links with high-capacity fiber optic connections.

As of September 2024, the 4G/LTE network covered 98% of the population.

Download speeds on the 4G mobile network also improved, rising from an average 34.3Mbps at end-September 2023 to 66.1Mbps on September 30 this year, according to figures from Ookla shared by Telecom.

The 5G network expansion is also progressing, though slowly, with 112 sites added in the first nine months of the year. The company expects to close the year with over 255 active sites.

According to figures shared by Telecom Argentina’s chief operating officer in October, 25% of mobile traffic is now 5G, with more than 800,000 customers using the service.

Results

Telecom Argentina reported sales of 2.8tn pesos in the first nine months of the year, down 10.4% in constant currency terms. Service sales totaled 2.6tn pesos, dropping 9.1% year-on-year amid continued rampant inflation (annual inflation was 209%).

However, Telecom noted that service sales are showing signs of real recovery, consolidating in the third quarter with growth of 2.5% and 6.0% compared with the second and first quarters of the year, respectively.

The company posted a net profit of 952bn pesos, up from 263bn pesos in January-September last year. This growth was attributed to the real-term appreciation of the Argentine peso against the dollar, since the depreciation of the peso was lower than inflation in the period.

Net financial debt fell 37.6% to 2.3tn pesos. Recently, the company successfully issued bonds for US$200mn to improve its debt profile and fund its infrastructure investment plan.

Telecom Argentina ended September with 21.4mn mobile customers, 3.2mn pay-TV users, and 4mn broadband connections. The company lost 46,900 broadband users in January-September but gained 668,000 mobile customers and 49,500 pay-tv subscribers.