América Móvil (AMX) saw its net profits drop 21% during the third quarter compared to the same period in 2010, which the carrier attributed to the exchange rate and lower interconnections fees. The company posted $1.4 billion of revenues in the quarter, buoyed by the growth of fixed and mobile data services and by its PayTV offering. Among the period’s highlights was postpaid growth at double the rate of prepaid subscribers and improved year-over-year performances from Brazil, Peru, Colombia and Argentina.
The company said it added 5.5 million wireless subscribers in the third quarter, slightly more than the prior year, with postpaid subscribers growing twice as fast as prepaid net additions. América Móvil reported a total of 298 million connections at the end of the quarter, with 241.5 million wireless subscribers, 29.3 million landline connections, 14.6 million broadband accounts and 12.5 million PayTV users.
Among service revenue, wireless voice services generated 47% of the total; wireline voice accounted for 22%; wireless data chipped in for 16%; wireline data and “others” were responsible for 12%; and its PayTV service made up 2.8%.
The carrier’s Brazilian operations led the way in subscriber growth with almost 2 million net additions, followed by Mexico with 1.1 million. Indeed, the company reported that net additions in Brazil, Argentina, Colombia and Peru were greater than those of the same quarter of the prior year. In the postpaid segment, net adds increased 15.6% year-over-year. Mexico remains América Móvil’s largest market with 68 million subscribers at the end of the September, compared with 57.5 million in Brazil and 31.2 million in Colombia.
While it remains the company’s largest wireless market, Mexico presented the lowest growth rate compared to other countries at just 2.5%. América Móvil’s U.S. operations – Tracfone Wireless – posted 34.8% increase in revenues; Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay’s revenues increased 20.4%; revenues from operations in Chile grew 19.9%; Central America and Caribbean grew 4.4%; Brazil grew 7.4%; Colombia presented a 17.1% of rise; Peru increased 16.8%; and Ecuador saw revenues rise 16.2%.
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