18.9.2020 15:16:55 CEST |Ice Group ASA | Inside informationIce Group ASA (ICE) has signed a new national roaming agreement (NRA) withTelia Norge AS (Telia) with effect from1 January 2021 . The new NRA will replace the current agreement with Telia that expires31 March 2021 . The new NRA lasts until31 December 2023 with a 1+1 year extension option, whereas the last 1 year option is under certain conditions. The new NRA has a price structure in line with the new "Market-15" regulation implemented from1 June 2020 . The new agreement will lower ICE's NRA costs significantly and would have resulted in NRA costs of approximatelyNOK 200 million if applied to FY 2020, compared to the current guidance for 2020 ofNOK 450 million . This would correspond to NRA cost of 11-12% of smart phone service revenues for 2020, compared to current level of approximately 30%. "This agreement is very important for improving our profitability and increasing our EBITDA-margin going forward. With continued network buildout we expect NRA cost to come down to 7-9% of smartphone service revenues, further improving our profitability in the coming years," saysHenning Karlsrud , CFO inIce Group ASA . During 2021 ICE targets to reach up to 3,500 smartphone base-stations on air, resulting in a population coverage of more than 95% and producing more than 90% of the traffic through its own modern ice+ network. "Ice will continue to build the third network inNorway , installing base-stations, expanding the coverage of our network and increasing the on-net share going forward. The support from Norwegian authorities and the new "Market-15" regulation is very important in order to realizing the third national mobile network inNorway . We have now delivered 21 consecutive quarters of smartphone subscription growth and we remain confident that we will continue to win market share and improve margins strongly going forward," says Eivind Helgaker, CEO inIce Group ASA . DISCLAIMER This information is subject to the disclosure requirements pursuant to section 5-12 of the Norwegian Securities Trading Act. CONTACTS *Espen Risholm , Head of investor relations, +47 924 80 248, espen.risholm@icegroup.com ABOUTICE GROUP ASA Ice Group is a telecommunications company with a nationwide network inNorway . The company operates a pure 4G mobile network, providing smartphone, m2m, IoT and mobile broadband services to B2C and B2B customers. ATTACHMENTS * Download announcement as PDF.pdf [https://kommunikasjon.ntb.no/ir-files/17847219/106/131/Download%20announceme nt%20as%20PDF.pdf]
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