2007: the year of Internet sales at GTS Datanet
Budapest, February 22, 2007
Datanet ADSL available on incumbent Hungarotel service areas as well; LLU based ADSL packages to upgrade GTS Datanet, Hungarian subsidiary of GTS CE announced to expand its ADSL coverage to service areas of incumbent Hungarotel as well. Due to the expansion, Datanet ADSL will be available via 81 percent of Hungarian fixed voice channels from February 2007.
The announcement corresponds to GTS Datanet's declared strategy to focus on internet sales this year. With respect to internet revenues, last year was outstanding at GTS Datanet: in 4Q, 2006 ADSL sales exceeded even seasonal expectations and number of Datanet ADSL subscriptions reached 30,000 at the end of the year.
Local loop unbundling based ADSL
GTS Datanet is to expand local loop unbundling based ADSL and fixed phone service coverage as well. Last year the company invested 1 billion HUF in launching LLU based service in Budapest, capital of Hungary. Due to the favourable reception of the new service from customers, GTS Datanet decided to invest further 1 billion HUF in expanding LLU service coverage to the countryside during 2007. From January 2007, LLU based ADSL and phone packages have been available in 8 towns: Debrecen, Gyõr, Kecskemét, Sopron, Székesfehérvár, Szolnok, Tatabánya, and Zalaegerszeg.
In order to make LLU based service offering even more attractive, GTS Datanet is to increase ADSL bandwidth in each package without any additional expenses. As to packages with 1280 kb/s currently, the bandwidth may increase to 1696 kb/s; the current maximum download speed of 2560 kb/s may go up to 4094 kb/s, the 4096 kb/s bandwidth to 8096 kb/s, while the current 6144 kb/s bandwidth may soar to 12096 kb/s maximum download speed. GTS Datanet will start increasing the bandwidth for its LLU based ADSL customers between February 25 and March 31.
Dataphone fixed line phone service
Although the fixed line voice market has been decreasing by 2-4% year to year in Hungary, GTS-Datanet was able to increase the number of its voice customers in spite of the market trends. In 2006, revenue from DataPhone ISDN30 business voice service increased by 45%, and subscribers have ported 18,000 geographic numbers to the company since January 2004.
DataPhone Pulzus, carrier preselection based voice service offered to small and middle size companies has been successful since 2004. Besides increasing customer number continuously, revenue from CPS voice services grew by 150% last year.
DataHome server collocation centre
DataHome collocation centre offers one of the biggest international and national bandwidth in Hungary for those who need professional collocation service for affordable prices. In 2006, number of servers hosted by GTS-Datanet was doubled as compared to the previous year and has reached 800 up to now. The company plans to increase capacity of DataHome server collocation centre by 100%, so invests more than 100 million HUF in building a new server room with space for 1,000 servers.
Financial results
"2006 was a very successful year for GTS-Datanet: the company's revenue grew by 20% to 13 billion HUF, although average growth of the Hungarian fixed line market was not more than 2-3%. This year we expect 15% sequential revenue growth as well" - said Géza Szathmári, CEO of GTS-Datanet.
"Up to the recent past, GTS-Datanet was well known with its high quality business services. Last years we were strongly committed to increase our brand awareness among residential subscribers as well. Due to our efforts one quarter of our revenue came from residential internet and phone services in 2006" - he added.
About GTS Datanet Telecommunications Ltd.
GTS-Datanet Telecommunications Ltd. is the leading alternative telecommunications provider in Hungary offering full scale of voice, data and Internet services for home and business customers as well. Website: www.gtsdatanet.hu
