Kazakhtelecom JSC about results of activity in 9 months of this year

/IRBIS, Assel Omarova, November 10, 04/ - Kazakhtelecom JSC (Almaty), whose securities are traded in Kazakhstan stock exchange's (KASE) official "A" listing category, today presented the press-release about results of company's activity in 9 months of 2004. The press-release says in the 3rd quarter of the company started building the Northern fiber-optic communication line (Petropavlovsk- Kostanai-Aktobe), which is the last are, which joins the main circle of the National information trunk (NIT). According to results of the first three quarters the company has put a total of 1,469 km of polyethylene pipe, and 858 km of fiber-optic cable. Thus, switching to digital communication gradually covers all regions of the country. Digitalization level of country's telephone communication, as of October 1 of this year was 58.71%. Since the beginning of the year the company set in exploitation digital ATS for 179.4 th. numbers, and by the end of September there were set 138.2 th. main telephone sets, including in rural area - 36.6 th. Number of main telephone sets grew within 9 months of 2004 by 106.5 th. numbers, including in cities - 74.3 th., in rural area - 32.2 th. Kazakhtelecom JSC also quickly sets telephones in settlements providing cities with good quality of communication. According to results of the first three quarters the company has set 276 stations on DAMA satellite communication network, 246 of them - in remote rural areas. As of October 1 of this year telephone density in the average was 15.7 numbers per 100 people that was higher by 6.7% than in similar period of last year. Growth of the number of subscribers in the past three quarters caused the considerable growth of company's telecommunication services consumption. In January-September of 2004 the outgoing paid international and intercity traffic grew by almost 20% in comparison with similar period of last year to 1,344.1 m. minutes, and traffic inside the country grew by 18.8%. In particular, there was growth of Internet channel usage by 44.2% against last year's level, traffic was 480.5 m. minutes. Within nine months of 2004 revenues of Kazakhtelecom JSC for rendered services equaled to KZT57,095.2 m., having exceeded similar period of 2003 by 18.1%. Company's net income, summarizing results of the first 9 months of this year, has equaled to almost KZT20 bn. that was more by 48.8% in comparison with similar period of last year. Summarizing results of 9 months of 2004 there have been paid KZT12,741.3 m. to Kazakhstan state budget as taxes and other payments, among them inflows to the Republican budget - KZT6,805.9 m. According to the financial statement, volume of capital investments for modernization and development of telecommunication networks, according to results of 9 months of 2004, has equaled to more than KZT9.3 bn. [2004-11-10]