Independent service provider (ISP) Altech Autopage has dragged the first-half earnings of the telecommunications division of Allied Electronics (Altron), but CEO Robert Venter on Wednesday said improvements would be seen during the last stretch of the financial year.

Autopage, a division of the newly formed Altron Telecommunications, Multimedia and Technology (TMT) business, had failed to meet the company’s expectations during the six months ended August 31.

The unit’s normalised earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (Ebitda) plunged 37% to R90-million for the six months, dragging the Ebitda of the telecommunications cluster within TMT down 15% to R300-million.

Revenue generated from Autopage contracted 7% to R2.7-billion during the period under review, mostly owing to continued pressures on the consumer and the deflation of voice charges with the average revenue per user showing a decline.

Churn, however, was maintained during the period under review.

Autopage was the last remaining ISP in South Africa after JSE-listed Reunert closed its Nashua Mobile subsidiary in September.

A “repositioning” of Autopage was under way to diversify Autopage’s offering from purely GSM (global systems for mobile communications) to converged services, integrating voice, data and multimedia, and to expand its ISP offerings for enterprise clients.

Autopage’s infrastructure would also be leveraged to distribute Altron’s latest multimedia offering – Altech Node.

The Node, launched two weeks ago, was described as a complete entertainment and smart home unit, which delivered video-on-demand.

No live content was broadcast on the device and satellite services were used to enable third-generation connectivity, home automation, closed-circuit television functions and prepaid electricity, airtime and data purchasing and bill payment capabilities.

The console would offer new and old movies and television series for users to view on demand.

Venter said 15 000 units, valued at R45-million, had been sold to Cell C, which had signed up as a distributor, various retailers and Autopage.