Claro adds 503,000 users in Q4 in Central America, Caribbean

Claro Central America and the Caribbean, a subsidiary of America Movil, saw its total revenues increase 5.7 percent year-on-year to USD 946 million in the fourth quarter. Mobile revenues rose 14.9 percent boosted by data revenues that were up 65.8 percent in the quarter. Fixed-line revenues declined 4.0 percent, as the increase in pay-TV and broadband revenues was not sufficient to fully compensate for the decline in fixed voice revenues. EBITDA for the quarter came in at USD 253 million, down 8.2 percent year-on-year, while EBITDA margin fell to 26.8 percent from 30.8 percent in the year-earlier period. Claro added 503,000 mobile subscribers in the region in the quarter, a period when it launched operations in Costa Rica, completed the acquisition of Digicel's operations in Honduras, and sold the Claro Jamaica unit. Claro ended the quarter with a total of 18.5 million customers in Central America and the Caribbean, up 6.4 percent from 17.4 million in December 2010. The postpaid subscriber base increased by 15.3 percent year-on-year to 2.4 million, while the number of prepay users rose by 5.1percent year-on-year to 16.1 million. ARPU climbed 7.4 percent year-on-ye¬ar to USD 9, while MOU increased 7.3 percent to 205 minutes per subscriber.