Telecom Argentina's mobile phone business, its main source of earnings, is expected to grow in 2007 on greater demand for cellphone services including ringtones and Internet capabilities, a company executive said on Thursday.
In an interview with Reuters, Chief Executive Carlos Felices said the company's number of mobile phone lines has grown around 50 percent this year.
"We estimate there is room for even more growth, and important growth, especially in value-added services, which is really turning out to be an important part of our revenue," he said.
Currently, Internet services and ringtones represent between 25 percent and 27 percent of the company's revenue, Felices said.
That has led the company to plan to allocate between $1.3 billion pesos and $1.4 billion pesos ($420 million and $452 million) in investment in the segment in the coming years.
In September, there were 28.5 million cellphone lines operating in Argentina, a 47 percent increase from the same period last year. The number of calls made on mobile phones rose 26.6 percent in that period.
Telecom Argentina, one of Argentina's top phone companies, reported its third-quarter net sales had grown 29 percent to $1.91 billion pesos, compared with $1.47 billion pesos a year ago. Revenue in the first nine months of the year was $5.26 billion pesos, an increase of 30 percent year on year, driven by the growth in the mobile phone sector, which expanded by 56 percent.
Also at the heart of Telecom's investment plans is a project to expand its digital network and services. In October, the company announced a 1-billion-peso ($321 million) plan to improve Internet, Internet-based telephone and wireless Internet services.
Telecom Argentina is controlled by Telecom Italia and an Argentine investor group run by the Werthein family.
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