UPC Romania ups revenues on higher number of subscribers

Telecom operator UPC Romania posted a 7.7% growth in revenues in the first half of this year, to USD 74.2 million. In the second quarter, revenues were up by 8.7%, to USD 37.3 million, according to a report from parent-group Liberty Global. The higher revenues came as the company increased the number of subscription contracts for its services by 6% compared to one year ago, to 1.8 million, at the end of June 2014. The number of clients also increased to 1.1 million, with each customer having one or more services contracted from UPC, the company announced. UPC Romania had 1.15 million subscribers for video services. More than half of these are digital cable subscribers. The number of internet clients passed 400,000 and that of telephony clients went over 300,000, according to company data. The company said it added 57,000 new Fiber Power broadband internet subscribers in the last 12 months, which is an annual increase of 16 percent. The total number of Fiber Power subscribers was 406,700 at the end of June 2014. More than 70% of these are high speed internet connections and more than half of the subscribers use WiFi in their homes. UPC also recorded a 16% increase on the digital cable TV segment. More than a quarter of disgital cable subscribers opted for HD TV. UPC is one of the largest cable TV and fixed internet and telephony providers in Romania. Its main competitors on these segments are private Romanian group RCS&RDS and Romtelecom, which is indirectly controlled by German group Deutsche Telekom. UPC is part of U.S. group Liberty Global, which serves more than 24.4 million customers, most of them in Europe. The group posted a 59% increase in revenues in the first half of 2014, to USD 9.14 billion. Andrei Chirileasa, andrei@romania-insider.com