United Pan-Europe Communications (UPC) Announces Increased Subscribers
United Pan-Europe Communications (UPC) today announced the following subscriber numbers for Year End 1999:
Basic Cable Subscribers: 6,015,000 (31.12.99), 5,345,700 (30.09.99)
Expanded Basic Tier: 726,540 (31.12.99), 706,937 (30.09.99)
Internet Residential Subscribers: 117,400 (31.12.99), 76,112 (30.09.99)
Internet Business Subscribers: 3,700 (31.12.99), 2,927 (30.09.99)
Cable phone telephony
Residential Lines: 207,200 (31.12.99), 148,469 (30.09.99)
Cable phone telephony
Business Lines: 20,100 (31.12.99), 19,639 (30.09.99)
These new subscriber numbers represent solid growth across each of its three main business lines. The migration of cable customers from basic to expanded Basic Tiers continues to be steady while UPC has added an additional 422,946 basic cable customers through acquisitions over the past quarter (to 31 December 1999). The Year End figure includes the following announced acquisitions which have yet to close: Haarlem Cable (66,000 subscribers) and Intercomm (66,000 subscribers). It does not include UPC's interest in Primacom which would give UPC 177,000 additional subscribers on a proportionate basis.
The growth in UPC's Internet subs has been most dramatic showing a 53% increase over the last quarter. UPC currently provides Internet services in Austria, Belgium, France, The Netherlands, Norway and Sweden through its chello broadband subsidiary.
UPC's cable telephony subscribers have also grown as Priority Telecom has continued to augment and roll out its residential and CLEC telephony services.
UPC operates in 12 European countries and Israel and through acquisitions and organic growth has more than doubled its size since its IPO in February 1999. UPC was recently awarded "Outstanding System / MSO of the Year" by the readers and editorial staff of International Cable Magazine.
Headquartered in Amsterdam, UPC is one of the most innovative broadband communications companies in Europe and owns and operates the largest pan-European group of broadband communication networks. UPC provides cable television, telephony, high-speed Internet access and programming services in twelve countries across Europe and in Israel. As of December 31, 1999, UPC's systems passed approximately 9.2 million homes with more than 6.0 million basic cable subscribers. UPC is a consolidated subsidiary of Denver based UnitedGlobalCom Inc. ("United") (NASDAQ: "UCOMA") and Microsoft has an interest of approximately 7.0% in UPC. . UPC's shares are traded on the Amsterdam Stock Exchange ("UPC") and NASDAQ ("UPCOY").