Hutchison gains 2,5 million 3G customers in 6 months — MobileMonday Global: Industry News

^{3G finally gaining traction} Hutchison gains 2,5 million 3G customers in 6 months

20 Aug 2004 at 20:56 GMT Timo Poropudas

Hutchison Whampoa Limited (HWL) today announced the Group’s interim results for 2004, and disclosed an updated subscriber figure on its global 3 network of over 3.2 million, which includes Italy, the UK, Hong Kong, Australia, Austria, Sweden and Denmark. Hutchison also reported that gross customer additions for all 3 Group operations in the first half (six months) of 2004 totaled over 2.5 million. Yet the group reported operating loss of USD 530 and total loss of USD 1.4 billion for the first half of 2004. Average revenues per user have remained strong with the result that the 3 Group’s revenue base is expanding in line with customer growth. Turnover for all 3 Group operations in the first six months of the year totaled USD 477million. Customer acquisition costs are coming down and the average cost of acquiring a customer for the month of July was EUR 252, significantly lower than the average cost of acquiring a customer for the first seven months of the year, which was EUR 299. “We expect this positive trend to continue as the 3 Group’s businesses gain market share and benefit from increasing volumes, broader product ranges and overall rapidly declining unit costs under the Group’s centralized major handset supplier arrangements,” says Hutchison in its press release.