Omani Qatari Telecommunications Company SAOG (Nawras) reported a marginal decline in total revenues for the first half of 2012, which amounted to RO 95.3 million compared with RO 96.9 million for the same period of 2011.

Announcing its unaudited financial results for the six months ended June 30, 2012, the telecom operator attributed the drop to a reduction in SMS revenues which was only partially offset by the continued growth in data revenue

EBITDA for the first half of the year stood at RO 48.2 million compared to RO 49.2 million for the first six months of 2011. EBITDA for the year is affected by lower gross margin due to increase in international traffic and higher leased lines and managed services cost, partially offset by lower general and administration expenses. General and administration expenses for the year have been lower due to one off reversal in accruals relating to staff cost.

Net profit for the first half of 2012 was RO 19.5 million compared with RO 22.1 million in the same period of 2011. Net profit for the year is affected by higher depreciation cost and by lower EBITDA partially offset by lower interest cost.

Total number of customers grew by 4.4 per cent, 86,090 customers, to be 2,028,100 at the end of the first half of 2012 compared to 1,942,010 for the same period of 2011.

The fixed service customer base grew by nearly 176 per cent to 36,787 customers from 13,338 customers for the same period of 2011. Year-on-year, mobile post-paid customer base also grew by 2.6 per cent to 175,469 customers compared with 170,958.

In addition, year to date, the mobile pre-paid customer base increased by 3.3 per cent to 1,815,846 customers compared to 1,757,717 customers.

Commenting on the results, CEO, Ross Cormack said: “We have more customers than ever using our network despite the highly competitive market. With more and more data capable devices driving the growth, the network investments we are making sure that our customers continue to get the best possible service.

In June, we started a project to turbocharge our network by introducing 4G LTE, upgrading all existing sites to enhanced 3G+ and increasing coverage, in-building penetration, capacity and speed of the entire network. Furthermore, the recent release by the TRA of new 3G+ frequencies will enable us to at least triple our mobile broadband capacity.

As we boost our network we have also commenced a number of additional transformation programmes including enhancing customer experience and further training and development of our people.