The cellular operator Eurotel (51% owned by Cesky Telecom) reported 2.859 mil. users at the end of September, implying an addition of 204,000 users in Q3 alone and 688,000 since the beginning of the year. The September figure means that our forecast of 3.15 mil. users by year-end 2001 will likely be surpassed (Q4 tends to be the strongest quarter in terms of user acquisition). Positive, but unlikely to affect Cesky Telecom stock.
RadioMobil (39% owned by Ceske radiokomunikace) expects to soon report 2.5 mil. users, implying an addition of almost 250,000 users in Q3, an addition of almost 630,000 since the beginning of the year. Again, our year-end 2001 forecast (2.71 mil. users) looks likely to be surpassed. Positive, but unlikely to affect Ceske radiokomunikace stock.
The overall cellular market penetration is therefore on track to reaching some 65% at the end of this year, vs. 42% at the end of 2000 and some 58% at the end of September 2001.
(Ondrej Datka)