Brazilian operator Oi reported BRL 6.51 billion in third-quarter revenues, down 3.3 percent year-on-year. The company was hurt by the reduction in mobile termination rates and outsourcing its handset operations. EBITDA improved 10.6 percent to BRL 1.74 billion, as a result of the continued focus on cost efficiency and profitability of the existing customer base. Operating costs fell 7.5 percent to BRL 4.78 billion, helping the EBITDA margin improve 3.4 percent to 26.7 percent. Capex was BRL 950 million, down by a third from the year-earlier period, of which 85.6 percent was directed to the network.

Net customer revenues (excluding handset sales and revenues from network usage) reached BRL 6.07 billion, an increase of 0.9 percent. In the mobile market, customer revenues rose 8.1 percent year-on-year to BRL 1.78 billion, driven by the increase of 52.8 percent in data revenues (including VAS). Oi also highlighted the increase in its residential ARPU, up 8.3 percent to BRL 79.50.

The total customer base was still 4.3 percent lower year-on-year at 71.84 million at the end of September. This included a 5.0 percent drop in residential customers to 16.5 million, 3.9 percent fall in mobile to 47.06 million, and 5.0 percent drop in business subscribers to 7.60 million. In the residential segment, the number of fixed line customers fell 8.2 percent to 10.22 million, broadband customers were down 2 percent to 5.13 million, and pay-TV customers grew 13.4 percent to 1.17 million. Of the total mobile users, 41.99 million were pre-paid (-4.0%) and 6.98 million post-paid (-3.2%).

The average speed in the fixed broadband network increased by 25 percent in the last twelve months and Oi said 53 percent of customer additions had speeds of at least 10 Mbps. During this same period, IP traffic grew 43 percent and the ADSL congestion rate fell by 17 percent.