Ufone not interested in upcoming Spectrum auction: CEO PTCL
Hatem Bamatraf, president and CEO of PTCL group on Monday said that Ufone was not interested to participate in the upcoming spectrum auction.
He also called for the government not to ease the conditions in the new auction.
Speaking about the future plan for the PTCL group Mr Bamatraf said, “We have no plans to participate in the new spectrum auction.
PTCL wants no change in spectrum auction terms
However, he demanded the government maintain the same terms and conditions for the new auction as they were during the last spectrum auction.”
He was speaking at the announcement of the second quarter financial results of the company, after the PTCL Board meeting here.
Meanwhile, the PTCL CEO has also expressed concerns over the high fuel rates in the country that led to the drop of the company’s accounts in the ‘red’ despite posting higher revenues in the first six months of 2022.
He highlighted that the overall PTCL group revenues witnessed a growth of 5.7 per cent in the first six months of the current year 2022 compared to the same period last year.
Among the PTCL Group, the PTCL company posted a revenue increase of 4.7 per cent, Ufone 3.5 per cent and Ubank witnessed an increase of 25 per cent in January – June 2022 against the same period last year.
Meanwhile, briefing the media about the results, Nadeem Khan, Chief Financial Officer of PTCL Groups said that the PTCL/ Ufone and other telecom operators have asked Nepra to grant industrial tariff status to the telecommunication sector.
He added that it discrimination against this sector by not granting it.
Financial Results Q2
The PTCL Q2 results show that the key revenue earner for the company was its wireline data service with Rs17.01 billion in Jan-June 2022 against the same period last year, showing a growth of 11 per cent.
While the revenue generation from wireless data service and voice service of PTCL declined by 12 and 10 per cent.
However, the revenue from corporate clients, wholesale data and other services and the international data and voice traffic posted growth.
“The higher revenue growth was in wake increase in rates of various services.
PTCL CFO calls for cut in taxes
But due to significant increase in fuel and electricity tariff, PTCL posted an operating loss of 33 percent amounting to Rs1.89 billion in the first six months of the year.” Mr Khan said.
However, he added that the 105 per cent increase in the non-operating income – coming from various local and international investments made by the PTCL contributed to the overall net profit of the company. As a result net profit of PTCL was Rs5.18 billion in Jan-June 2022.
Mr Khan said that Ufone has the fastest growing 4G subscriber base in the country and it has been granted the AA- status by VIS credit rating agency.
