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Political unrest slows Robi's revenue

Star Business Report
The current political unrest has slowed down Robi's revenue growth, the operator's officials said yesterday.
The number of voice calls drops by around 10 percent during shutdowns, Mahtab Uddin Ahmed, Robi's chief financial officer, said at a press conference to disclose the operator's financial results for the July-September quarter.
"And the usage decreases further if the shutdown lingers," he added.
Low-income people cannot top-up their phones during hartal days, preventing their usage, he said.
"If the current political situation continues, it will impact the industry badly in the upcoming quarters."
The operator's revenues grew only 1 percent from the previous quarter.
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The operator blamed the slowdown on the ongoing political uncertainty and "lower average call rates due to heightened price competition in the market".
Ahmed said their net profit rose by 27.27 percent to Tk 140 crore during July-September compared to the previous quarter.
He said Robi's profit was stable due to a cut in SIM tax, and efficiency of the operator. "The profit, however, was partly offset by increased depreciation due to investments made over the past periods as well as additional amortisation recognised for 3G and 2G spectrum fees."
However, EBITDA (earnings before income tax depreciation & amortisation) margin of the operator improved to 40.2 percent in part due to lower subscriber acquisition cost and improved efficiency in operational expenditure.
The regulator recently demanded a 5 percent advanced income tax on spectrum fees, which the operator said "is unsubstantiated and is under our scrutiny," and posts a significant threat to the overall bottom-line performance of the company.
On the introduction of 3.5G services, the CFO said the revenue growth was "more significant because data and non-voice were
driving the revenue growth for the first time."
Data revenue growth was important at this point as the company has invested a significant amount to expand its 3.5G services. Robi has already invested Tk 870 crore to acquire the 3G licence at an auction in September.
The company has made additional investments in the network with 122 new networking sites being aired in the third quarter, taking the total number of base station sites to 6,300 and covering more than 98 percent of the population.
Its accumulated investment in the network since inception stands at more than Tk 11,700 crore.