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Star Telecom pledges better services amid strong 2012 forecasts
Star Telecom Co Ltd is budgeting for about 1.2 trillion kip (US$150 million) in revenue before tax this year, a significant increase from last year's total of about 883 billion kip (US$110 million).
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| Star telecom technicians work atop a base station. |
“Of this, about 321 billion kip (US$40 million) will be profits after tax contributions,” company representative Mr Bimoua Phaidayiacha reported at the annual meeting in Vientiane on Monday.
Mr Bimoua pointed out that the company made a profit of 241 billion kip (US$30 million) after tax last year, which was about 2.5 times more than in 2010.
To achieve this year's target, the company will have to increasingly expand its services, including base stations, dealers, service units and optic fibre installations.
The company is planning for an additional 400,000 to 500,000 subscribers or customers this year, according to a press release.
The press release noted that the company is gearing up for 59,000 new users of its USB 3G wireless Internet modems.
It also plans to have an additional 152,000 cordless telephone customers and 1,200 home cable internet users.
Mr Bimoua said the company plans to install a further 300 2G and 500 3G base stations.
The press release mentioned that last year the company had about 1.8 million subscribers or customers, including 1.6 million mobile, cordless and fixed line telephone customers.
It also had more than 2,000 base stations, including 800 2G and 500 3G stations.
The company enjoyed 42 percent of the mobile phone market share in 2011, up from 35 percent in 2010.
It paid about 217 billion kip (US$27 million) in tax in 2011, about 3 percent more than the company's target, with tax contributions about 1.7 times higher than in 2010.
Star Telecom is a joint venture between Lao Asia Telecom State Enterprise, which has a 51 percent shareholding, and Viettel Global of Vietnam.
Laos has four telecom operators: Lao Telecommunications Company, Enterprise of Telecommunications Lao, Star Telecom and VimpelCom Lao Co Ltd.
The strong competition between these operators has benefited customers. According to a report from the 1st Lao Banking and Telecom World Conference and Expo 2011, as of last September there were about 5.4 million mobile phone subscribers in Laos, accounting for about 83 percent of the population, and mobile phone networks reached 6,712 villages throughout the country.
vientiane times
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