PTCL profit registers 168pc increase in 2017

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited (PTCL), the country’s leading telecom and ICT services provider, registered 168 percent increase in its profit during 2017 as compared to the last year.

The financial results of the company for the year ending on December 31 were announced after the meeting of its Board of Directors (BoD), according to a press released issued here.

In 2017, the Group revenue remained stable at Rs 117 billion after having declined by percent the year before.

PTCL’s flagship and market leading Fixed Broadband service continued its progression and posted a revenue growth of 4%. Investments made in Charji/LTE during 2016/17 have started yielding positive results with revenue growth of 26%. Corporate and International revenues posted growth of 11% and 8%respectively on Yeare-on-year basis.

PTCL's overall revenue went down by 2% over last year due to continued decrease in Voice and EVO revenues, which could not be offset by growth in other segments.

In the 4th quarter, the decline of PTCL’s overall revenue reduced to 1% over same period last year. PTCL’s revenue for the year was Rs. 69.8 billion and the net profit was Rs. 8.4 billion, which is 22% higher compared with last year including the one off impact of VSS.

In 2017, PTCL embarked upon an ambitious project of its network’s transformation that will continue with same fervor in 2018, which has resulted in several fully transformed exchanges, giving speeds up to 100 Mbps to PTCL customers.

The customer care infrastructure was also upgraded to provide integrated digital channels, customer support, and one-window support helpline – 1218 (Baara Atharaa).

On the product and services side, major initiatives included launch of Charji wireless services in Azad Jammu & Kashmir, KPK, Baluchistan and Central Punjab, partnership with Iflix to provide quality content to our customers and launch of Cloud Service that is showing good adoption and growth in the corporate sector.

Commissioned this year, AAE-1 (Asia Africa Europe-1) submarine cable is successfully catering to the growing internet bandwidth needs of the country.