ISLAMABAD: Despite a 11.1 percent year-on-year (YoY) growth in overall revenues in local currency, Jazz’s revenue decreased 12.1 percent in USD terms during the second quarter of 2022 mainly due to PKR devaluation, whereas, the margins are hampered by exponential increase in operational cost including fuel, electricity, interest and forex rates, says the company.

On the other hand, Jazz continued to lead the market with focus on driving digital inclusion and further investing Rs 11.2 billion under its “4G for all” ambition, taking its overall investment in Pakistan to US 10.3 billion dollars.

A majority of its capital expenditure during this quarter was on the addition of approximately 400 new 4G sites. This network expansion played a key role in increasing Jazz’s 4G customer base by 24.1 percent YoY to reach 38.2 million while its overall subscriber base touched 75.5 million.

Jazz CEO Aamir Ibrahim, said: “While we are continuously investing in expanding the outreach and capacity of our 4G network and driving the digital ecosystem, telecom industry’s financial health is severely impacted due to unprecedented rise in cost of operations; primarily fuel, electricity, interest and forex rates. During the current digital emergency, we are seeking urgent policy interventions from the government to provide critically needed fiscal space to the industry to ensure its survival. This includes pricing of spectrum in PKR and extending the payment terms to 10 years instead of 5”.

The performance of its digital services during the quarter solidified Jazz’s position as the country’s leading digital operator. Its digital financial service, JazzCash, reached 16.2 million monthly active users and 157,000 active merchants. Its self-care app, Jazz World, continued to enjoy strong customer adoption levels with monthly active users growing by 27.5 percent YoY to reach 11.1 million while its rapidly growing entertainment platform Tamasha now has 1.6 million monthly active users.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2022