ETL's income falls short of target but operations grow

ETL's income falls short of target but operations grow

A major national telecom provider, Enterprise of Telecommunications Lao (ETL), has reported that income for 2010 fell by about 8 percent compared to the previous year.

“ETL received about 422 billion kip (almost US$53 million), about 90 percent of the company's target,” company Director General, Mr Khammouane Xomsihapanya, reported on Friday.
Mr Khammouane Xomsihapanya.

The income was mainly from mobile phone services, accounting for 77.5 percent of the total.

The drop in earnings was attributed to growing competition in the telecom sector, in which large telecom providers are jostling for a greater market share. The main areas of competition were in service fees and product costs.

“Also, expenditure was up about 6 percent, compared to payments in 2009,” Mr Khammouane pointed out at the company's annual meeting in Vientiane.

Expenditure was about 399 billion kip (almost US$50 million) or about 95 percent of the company's target.

Operations were unable to meet those planned in 2010 but services and network expansion keep on growing and remain profitable, to the tune of 23 billion kip according to a press release.

“We also contributed about 72 billion kip to national revenue,” Mr Khammouane said. “This was about 3.2 percent down from 2009.”

The company has succeeded in many areas, including the establishment of four additional branches and service units in the provinces last year.

Currently, it has 10 branches and six service units, more than 730 staff, 914 mobile phone base stations, and network services in cities, rural villages and overseas.

It now holds about 37 percent of the market share in the telecommunications sector, the press release noted.

Mr Khammouane said the company now has mobile phone services covering 5,683 villages in 143 districts, or about 65 percent of villages nationwide.

He said it currently has over 985,000 mobile phone customers, 3.6 percent up from 2009. It also has over 18,000 fixed line phone customers, an increase of about 3 percent, and about 3,500 Internet customers, an increase of 156 percent from 2009.

Laos currently has four tele-communication companies: Lao Telecommunications Company (LTC), ETL, Star Telecom and the Millicom Lao Company.

Until the mid-1990s, Laos had only two telephone companies.

Then, in 1995, LTC signed an agreement with the government to become the only supplier of telephone services for the next five years.

When the contract expired in 2000, ETL was established. Millicom Lao, which provides only mobile phone services, came into operation in 2003 and Star Telecom launched in 2008.

Star Telecom is a joint venture between Lao Asia Telecom State Enterprise, which opened in 2002, and Viettel Global of Vietnam.





By Phonsavanh Vongsay
(Latest Update March 1 , 2011)