Unwired Revenues Leap 104%: Loss Narrows

Written by Adam Gosling

Friday, 25 August 2006

Unwired announced its annual results indicating good progress for the fledgling wireless network carrier. The company reported an increase in operating revenue of 104 per cent while expenses from ordinary operating activities increased just one per cent. The increase in revenue derived from a substantial increase in customer numbers up from 28,100 a year ago to 53,405 today. This 90 per cent increase coming mainly from the company's launch in the Melbourne CBD and surround metro areas. "We are very pleased with this result," said Unwried CEO, David Spence. "It demonstrates that we are managing this buysiness well 0- containing costs despite doubling customer revenue and numbers. We will continue to focus on costs and increasing revenue to ensure we are in an excellent position for solid growth despite an increasingly competitive environment," he said. Operating revenue, including wireless modem sales and monthly plans, but excluding interest on the cash the company has left over from a $25 million Intel investment rose to A$23.4 million. The cash at bank yielded a nice profit of A$12.2 million, more than half a million lower than the interest earned last year, but a handy fill up. The company still has A$15.9 million in the bank at the end of the financial year. The net loss for 2005/06 was $33.9 million which was a 20 per cent improvement on the previous corresponding period, but indicating the company will need to go further into debt to see out the current year. EBITDA loss improved to A$16.7 million or 41 per cent better. All up this spelt a revenue increase of 86 per cent while the cost base remained fairly stable over the year despite the doubling in customer numbers. Expenses from ordinary operating activities increase fractionally to $40.1 million. Plenty was spent on capital assets though. Last year Unwired invested A$12.5 million which was slightly higher than this year's A$10.4 million. The company spent an additional A$4.3 million on its Sydney network - adding nine new sites and upgrading some heavily used network points. The Melbourne build out has so far cost the company A$6.1 million up to June 30. At this point the company had only four network sites operational and has added to this considerably in the months since the end of last fiscal. Probably the biggest news coming out of today's statement was the plans for Unwried's migration to industry standard Mobile WiMax. Unwired has put a lot of thought into how it will builds its WiMax, network which is expected to go live in the last half of 2007, Spence told Computerworld. The company hopes to reach 45 per cent of the Australian population with its WiMax services by the end of 2008. "Mobile WiMax is emerging as a clear winner in the battle for a premier wireless broadband standard as more carriers, vendors and media companies commit to WiMAX. This puts Unwired in an exdellent position - we have the right asset - large amounts of wireless spectrum in the mblie WiMax bands - and the right partners to work with, including AUSTAR , Intel , Google, Fairfax and Macquaire Radio ," Spence said. Related news items Symbol Builds A Bridge Between RFID and WLAN -07/12/2006 Intel Demo's Mobile WiMAX Chip -07/12/2006 ACMA Hunts For Useful Spectrum -05/12/2006 1 Million Wireless Broadband Users Up For Grabs -20/11/2006 Canberra Gets Free Mobile Broadband -16/11/2006 Newer news items ACCC Rejects Telstra Mobile Termination Charges -11/09/2006 Vodafone Adds Brisbane Lions To Portfolio -10/09/2006 Mobile TV In Vietnam By Year’s End -10/09/2006 First Aussie Made-For-Mobile Music Vid -06/09/2006 Nokia To Expand Yunnan Mobile Network -05/09/2006 Older news items Blackberry Connect For Voda Treo 650 -24/08/2006 New Optus Satellite Nears Orbit -24/08/2006 Multiemedia To Become NewSat -17/08/2006 Wireless Broadband Reaches The Banks Of The Murray -17/08/2006 Ericsson Gets Half Billion China Deal -16/08/2006 Tag This Now: