Ukraine’s leading cable operator Volia has posted a gross income of around UAH800 million (€62.9 million) for 2009, or 26% more than for the previous year. However, quoted by Interfax-Ukraine, its president Sergie Boyko pointed out that in dollar terms the figure fell by around 12-14%.
He added that EBITDA remained at 40% and total investment amounted to UAH230 million.
Commenting further on its performance and plans for 2010, Volia said that its communication network covered 2.5 million households at the beginning of this year, while its subscriber base stood at 1.7 million. Of these, over 380,000 used high-speed internet access. ARPU for the latter amounted to UAH50-60 in 2009, as opposed to UAH24-30 for TV programmes.
Boyko meanwhile added that the inflation index was almost 20% in 2009 and, according to Volia’s forecasts, is unlikely to be below 12% this year. “This is likely to force all players to adjust their price offers to compensate for the losses. We do not expect an explosion of consumer activity and increased growth rate of the total market in terms of number of users. This in turn will cause even more tightening of competition.” All in all, 2010 will be difficult year for Ukraine’s telecom market.
