Enhancements boost Saturn sales

By Richard Braddell

WELLINGTON - Saturn Communications boosted revenue almost 75 per cent in the June quarter on the preceding March quarter and claims 21 per cent of the serviceable homes in Wellington as active customers.

But Saturn's director of corporate affairs, Sean Wynne, said the 21 per cent figure was closer to 26 per cent at the end of June when houses that had been "sold", but not yet connected, were taken into account.

Although there were 14,219 residential line customers out of 65,000 serviceable homes, about 16,000 were "sold".

Commercial customers stood at 1464, while 11,000 homes were connected to its pay-television service.

Revenue on average per customer had gone up from $78 a month in the first quarter to $94, largely driven by demand for telephone add-ons including enhanced services and second lines.

Meanwhile, Saturn's recently floated Australian parent, Austar United, has reported an 85 per cent boost in first half revenue to $117 million and 50 per cent growth in subscriber numbers over the June half in 1998.