OREANDA-NEWS. On 03 June 2009 CenterTelecom announced its financial performance for January-March 2009 in accordance with Russian Accounting Standards (RAS).

Key efficiency indicators:

Lines per employee jumped 44.9% to 230.67 (159.16 lines in January-March 2008);

Revenue per line grew 6.2% from Rub 1,202.22 in January-March 2008 to Rub 1,277.15 in the reporting period;

Revenue per employee amounted to Rub 294,950.00 in Q109 or 53.9% more than a year ago (Rub 191,350.00)

Average headcount was reduced by 30.3% to 29,815 employees (42,795 staff in January-March 2008);

The base of broadband Internet subscribers (the Domolink brand) climbed 14.88% to 810,000 in the first quarter of 2009 (705,075 at the end of 2008), while the portion of Internet access earnings in the revenue mix grew to 13.57% (10.23% in January-March 2008).

Main telephone lines rose 0.48% at the end of Q109 compared to the year-earlier period to 6,698,732 units (6,666,400 as of April 1, 2008).

Intrazonal revenue dropped primarily because CenterTelecom reduced tariffs for the relevant services starting March 1, 2009. A contraction in income derived from interconnect and traffic transmission services, and also in outsourcing and agency fees, was driven by the cancellation effective March 1, 2008 of connection fees and a reduction of DLD tariffs in the corporate segment.

A spike in other expenses (higher costs to maintain payphones) and also in rentals with regard to lease payments in January-March 2009 was due to CenterTelecom’s implementation of a project to phase in universal telecom services in the Central Federal District. In line with the effective legislation, subsequently such expenses of the company will be offset from the Universal Service Fund.