CANTV announces end of year stats

Venezuelan state-run telco CANTV has revealed preliminary statistics for the end of 2012, including annual revenues of VEF16 billion (USD3.7 billion) and twelve-month CAPEX of VEF2.8 billion, while it claimed that it reached 1.87 million internet users at the end of December, up from 1.72 million at the end of the previous year. The results were aired by CANTV’s president, Manuel Fernandez, in a TV interview relayed by state news agency AVN and cited by BNamericas. TeleGeography’s GlobalComms Database shows that the preliminary 2012 revenue figure – which includes cellular unit Movilnet – represents a stagnation in growth from total turnover of VEF16.26 billion reported in full-year 2011, while total CAPEX increased by 37% from VEF2.05 billion invested in 2011. Fernandez added that CAPEX would rise significantly again in 2013, by 43% to VEF4 billion, as the government aims to belatedly reach its end-2012 target of over two million internet users by the end of 2013. CANTV will be carrying out trials of fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) technology during 1H13 with the aim of launching commercial services by the end of the year, enabling the capability to offer connection speeds of 10Mbps, 20Mbps, 50Mbps or 100Mbps, Fernandez noted in the interview.