Millicom International Cellular SA, owners and operators of the Tigo mobile networks in Latin/Central/South America and Africa has reported that its 2012 first-quarter (Q1) profits fell by 13.1 per cent to US$159 million even though revenues rose by 8.4% to US$1.68 billion. The report attributed the dip in profits to diluted EBITDA margin to 44.2%, mainly due to price pressure in some markets, particular Africa and El Savador, among other factors. It said in Africa, revenue growth slowed down to 5.4% reaching US$239 million in Q1, with Ghana, Senegal and the Democratic Republic of Congo showing negative growth while Tanzania and Rwanda continued to report strong performance, supported by the success of Mobile Financial Services. The report showed that voice communication revenue in particular reduced from US$220 million in Q4 2011 to US$212 million in Q1 2012 in Africa. This was in spite of the fact that subscriber level in Africa increased by almost 11% from 15.5 million in Q4 2011 to 17.2 million in Q1 this year. Tigo Ghana, for instance, introduced heavy price cuts all the way down to 3Gp per minute (1.7 cents) of on-net call and now 8.4Gp (4.7 cents) per minute of off-net calls. ARPU (average revenue per user) in Africa also declined by 6.8% due to reduction in tariffs to support affordability, while ARPU remained fairly stable in Latin America. Total ARPU for the group declined by 2.6%, from $9.3 in Q4 2011, to $9 Q1 2012. In Latin America, where the company generated 80% of its revenues, top line revenue grew by 9.2% in local currency, which was in line with average growth in the region over the past twelve months; and mobile data accounted for close to 12% of revenues. The report said in the first quarter of 2012, 26% of customers had an ARPU in excess of $10, while only 10.7% of total customer base were mobile data users. Meanwhile, group subscriber level grew 10.1% from 39.8 million to 43.8 million between Q4 2011 and Q1 this year. Group President and CEO, Mikael Grahne was quoted as saying at a presentation that: “We are currently implementing various pricing initiatives in the markets experiencing negative growth to improve our affordability perception. This margin is in line with our internal expectations and we are comfortable reiterating our previously communicated guidance for the year and our mid-term growth ambitions." He added that he believed that cross-selling and up-selling services to their existing customers would enable the company to continue growing revenues and EBITDA, while generating attractive returns.