BUENOS AIRES, Argentina—Cellular telephony operator BellSouth attained gains of US$17 million in Latin America during the last quarter of 2001, even though it had less income and lost more than 500,000 clients—mainly prepaid—in the region.
BellSouth lost 1.1 percent of its users in Argentina and 4 percent of customers in Venezuela.
BellSouth’s corporate reengineering, which includes decreasing operational expenses and prioritizing contract clients over prepaid clients, allowed it to maintain the same average revenue per user (ARPU) during the last two quarters at around US$24, despite being 20 percent less than the ARPU of 2000.
In any case, in annual terms, the company lost US$50 million in 2001 and increased its client base by 707,000, with growth superior to 50 percent in Ecuador and Nicaragua. During 2001, the company had earnings of US$2.93 billion in Latin America.
