Tashkent, Uzbekistan (UzDaily.com) -- Beeline’s subscriber base in Uzbekistan in the second quarter of 2020 decreased by 18% or 1.6 million customers. This was stated in the report of the VEON.

According to the company, in the second quarter of 2020, the subscriber base of Beeline made up 7.1 million people against 8.7 million in the second quarter of 2019.

VEON notes that the decline in subscriber base is due to customer churn with irregular payments and a strategic focus on customer quality.

This is also due to the introduction of quarantine measures in Uzbekistan, which led to a decrease in the number of migrants due to the closure of borders and a decrease in demand for the use of mobile data.

The VEON report highlights that the number of mobile data users fell from 5.4 million to 4.6 million (-15%).

The company’s revenue fell by 15% in the second quarter of 2020 compared to the same period of 2019 - from 567.8 billion soums to 479.9 billion soums. In the first half of the year, this figure fell by 9.2% - to 1 trillion. soums.

Revenue in the mobile segment in the second quarter of 2020 exceeded 476.3 billion soums, which is 15.4% less compared to the same period in 2019. In the first half of the year, this figure decreased by 9.4% - to 991 billion soums.

Revenue from data transmission services in the second quarter exceeded 253.9 billion soums (-0.6%) and in the first half of the year - 552 billion soums (+ 12.4%).

EBITDA (operating profit before depreciation of fixed assets, amortization of intangible assets and losses associated with depreciation of assets) in Uzbekistan in the second quarter of 2020 made up 201.7 billion soums, which is 31.8% less compared to the same period of 2019. EBITDA in the first half of the year decreased by 21.1% - to 444 billion soums.

At the same time, the marginality of operations fell from 52.1% in the second quarter of 2019 to 42% in the same period of 2020 and from 51% in the first half of 2019 to 44.3% in January-June 2020.

The average bill per one mobile subscriber per month (ARPU) reached 21,282 soums in the second quarter of 2020, which is 2% more compared to the same period of 2019.

MOU (the number of minutes used per subscriber per month) made up 642 minutes in the second quarter of 2020 compared to 616 minutes in the same period of 2019 (+ 4.2%).

Data usage per user grew by 48.6% in the second quarter of 2020 to 3292 MB.