GT&T dials up strong profits for first quarter
Cell phone users overtake landlines
Stabroek News
May 18, 2003
Revenues for the phone company increased by US$2.8M, or 18 per cent, in the first quarter of this year compared with first quarter 2002, yielding US$7M for GT&T in net income compared with US$5M at the end of March last year.
This reflects a 31% increase in local exchange service revenues, which moved from US$6.1M at the end of March 2002 to US$8M at March 31 of this year and is attributable largely to the substantial increases in the Guyana Telephone and Telegraph’s (GT&T) cellular subscribers.
According to the first quarter statements released to Business Wire on April 30, GT&T, at the end of March 2002, had 51,244 cellular subscribers but this almost doubled to 92,756 subscribers at March 31, 2003. Wire-line subscribers moved from 81,386 for the period to 87,057. At the end of 2002 cellular subscribers with GT&T were 79,975 and wire-line subscribers numbered 86,245.
International long distance revenues for GT&T increased by eight per cent from US$8.5M in 2002’s first quarter to US$9.2M at the end of March 2003. This, the statement to Business Wire said, was because of increased traffic following the mandated reduction in international settlement rates for calls between Guyana and the United States from the first of January last year.
International long distance expenses were down from US$2.6M at the end of March 2002 to US$1.8M while telephone and operating expenses increased to US$7.5M and general and administrative expenses rose from US$1.1M to US$1.6M.
The statement said that the reduction in international long distance expenses was a result of the full implementation of the US Federal Communications Commission order but this was offset by higher depreciation, power, legal and other expenses related to the expansion of facilities.
The strong performance of GT&T has led to its parent company, the Atlantic Tele Network reporting higher earnings of US$2.8M or US$0.56 per share for the first quarter despite losses from other ATN operations. The earnings per share compares with US$0.40 in the first quarter of 2002.
“Our Guyana subsidiary, GT&T continues to grow strongly, reflecting additional investment last year of US$14.5M and enabling us to expand both our cellular operations and our fixed wire-line customers substantially,” the statement quotes ATN chairman, Cornelius Prior as saying. Teledensity (lines per total population), he said, is now over 20% compared with less than two per cent when GT&T started in 1991.
Prior also said in the statement that ATN would not appeal the recent decision of the US District Court in Washington which threw out its bid to block an information and communication technology loan from the Inter-American Development Bank for Guyana. He said this was as a result of the resumption of talks between the government, GT&T and ATN on a new telecommunications policy for Guyana.
ATN’s cellular operations in Bermuda have also done well in the first quarter, contributing almost 20% to ATN’s net income. ATN owns 80% of GT&T, 100% of Choice Communications in the British Virgin Islands, 100% of the Atlantic Tele Centre in Guyana and 44% of Bermuda Digital Communications, which operates Cellular One.
