Telenor Group today said its Capex (capital spending) rose 40 percent to $788 million (NOK 4,880 million) in the second quarter of 2014.

Telenor continued investments in high-speed networks, with 4G population coverage approaching 80 percent.

Modernization of fixed value chain and efficiency initiatives were some of the focus areas for Telenor during the second quarter of 2014.

The Q2 revenue of Telenor rose 4 percent to $4.3 billion (NOK 26,803 million), while profit dipped 28 percent to NOK 2319 million.

Telenor added close to four million new customers.

“Our customers almost doubled their data usage from the second quarter last year. The network expansion and increase in 4G enabled phones are the key drivers of this positive development resulting in an ARPU increase of 4 percent and underlying mobile revenue improvement of 6 percent,” said Jon Fredrik Baksaas, President and CEO of Telenor Group.

Telenor to slash Capex-to-Sales ratio

“On the back of strong performance so far this year and our estimates for the remainder of 2014, we now expect an EBITDA margin above last year while our revenue outlook remains at low single digit organic growth. Following the shift of the satellite-related capex to next year, we adjust this year’s capex to sales ratio downwards to be in the range of 14-15 percent,”’ said Baksaas.