Kaan Terzioglu, CEO:
“…2021 has been a strong year for VEON across our key markets and — key market performance indicators. Group revenue grew 10.1% year-on-year on a local currency basis, closing above our high single-digit values. EBITDA was up 8.9% in local currency, supported by our focus on value and good cost control and above our minimum 8% guidance. CapEx intensity closed at 23.4 percentage points within our guidance range and 1.2 percentage points lower than prior year. In reported currency, revenues were up 6.8% and EBITDA was up 5.7%, supported by our disciplined inflationary pricing and an effective [indiscernible]. In terms of quarterly performance, we delivered now three quarters of double-digit revenue growth, closing Q4 at 11.1 percentage local currency growth in top line and 9.5 percentage points. In reported currency, this performance corresponds to 12.2% for revenues and 10.6% for EBITDA [ph]. Importantly, our performance improved throughout the year, positioning us well for the medium term.
Moving on to Slide 6. The main driver of these results have been the progress in our digital operator strategy, enabled by our 4G investments and the expansion of digital services in adjacent markets. Over the past 12 months, our 4G users increased by 30%, reaching 97 million customers. We now serve nearly one out of two customers with 4G services, up from just low 40% 4G penetration of our subscriber base a year ago. Over the past two years, we have increased our 4G penetration from 28% of our subscriber base to 48%. This gives us confidence that we are on track towards our 70% 4G penetration as mentioned in the medium term.
Our one month active Double and Multiplay 4G customers reach 61.3 million at the end of ’21 with a growth rate of 32% year-on-year. In 2021, these customers generated nearly 60% of our subscriber revenues. In line with this, our combined data and digital revenues increased from 18.2% in local currency terms.
Slide 7; looking at the Q4 performance of each of our operations, you can see here the summaries. We reported encouraging results across all our operating companies. We reported solid top line performance in all the markets with double-digit local currency growth in five countries. EBITDA trends were also positive across all operations. Our group revenue growth was driven by all countries as each country reached a healthy growth momentum in ’21. Most notably, in Russia, our turnaround made good progress. Let me now talk about this on the next slide.
In Q4, Beeline Russia recorded total revenue growth of 7.7%, service revenue growth of 6.6%, mobile service revenue growth of 6% and EBITDA growth of 4.3%. This means four consecutive quarters of total revenue growth and three consecutive quarters of growth in service revenues — mobilized service revenues and [indiscernible]. What is more encouraging is the upward trajectory within the quarter. In the month of December, Beeline Russia’s mobile service revenues were up 7.1% year-on-year. The operational foundation for this growth is our 4G user base which grew to RUB25.5 million at the end of the quarter with a year-over-year growth rate of 13%. 4G users now account for 55% of our total customers in Russia, improving Net Promoter Scores, higher ARPU and lower churn. Our brand renewal, widening B2B portfolio, growth in digital services and strong partnerships have contributed to this performance.
With these results, we consolidated our position as a strong number three player in the market. Let’s continue with Ukraine. Over the past few years, Kyivstar delivered consistent growth quarter after quarter and the final quarter of 2021 was no exception. We reported 12.5% growth in revenues, 8.7% in EBITDA in Q4. For the full year, revenues increased 14.3% and EBITDA is up 13.1%. This financial performance has been supported by the consistent price in 4G penetration across our base. We added 2.8 million 4G subscribers year-on-year and nearly 5 million over the past two years corresponding to 68% growth since the end of 2019.
In 2021, we added 3,440 sites to our network, enabling the growth of 4G customers and executing our strategy of 4G to 5G. Kyivstar has strong profitability, infrastructure leadership, growing convergent services and a very strong activity [ph] has been recognized as the best employer of Ukraine. I would like to again thank all our employees there for their exceptional team strength and dedication in these highly challenging times. God be with you.
On Slide 10, we look at to Pakistan. Jazz grew 13.7% in revenue and 14.8% in EBITDA. These results were enabled by a 40% increase in our 4G subscribers. 4G penetration has now reached 48% in our customers. Our digital services are another important contributor to customer loyalty, engagement and value generation. Our fintech service, JazzCash continued to grow in 2021 and reached 15.2 million monthly active users, up 25% year-on-year. The ARPU of JazzCash customers who also use JazzCash is higher than the ARPU of an average Jazz user by more than 40%. Our entertainment application, Tamasha was launched in October in 2021, building on Jazz TV and offering TV streaming and video-on-demand services. Tamasha’s multi-active users reached 1.2 million at the end of the year. It’s 72% growth over Jazz TV users by the end of 2020. In Q4, total watch time of Tamasha users was 4x the total watch time of Jazz TV users in 2020. As we said during the recent Investor Day in December last year, [indiscernible] digital opportunities.
Next slide, Kazakhstan. Following the unrest in January, we were glad to see the quick return to stability in the country. They recently held Foreign Investors’ Council, chaired by President Tokayev, demonstrated the government’s commitment to maintaining a reliable, predictable and fair environment for investors. Our industry can contribute significantly to the sustainable growth of Kazakhstan to digital vision and Beeline Kazakhstan continued to work in this direction in Q4. Our mobile and fixed network expansion continues at a steady pace, including rural areas. We connected 644 remote communities across Kazakhstan, improving the livelihood of more than 800,000 people. What is particularly important is that the progress on this coverage in cooperation with our competitors sharing our network infrastructure as being connected to more settlements.
Together, we can use resources responsibly and efficiently, while reducing the combined carbon footprint for our industry. The digital services that we are building on top of this connectivity level support bridging the digital devices in Kazakhstan. With a strong focus on 4G and digital services, our revenues in Q4 were up 21.1% and 22.6% for the full year. We have now reached 64% penetration of our 4G subscribers in our customer base with a growth rate of 21% year-on-year for 2021. Our digital-only second brand, Izi, is gaining traction through gamification and music streaming, proposing unprecedented offerings on the market for local and roaming services. BeeTV is evolving into a multi-platform video on-demand application supporting a last choice of entertainment functions. It has reached nearly 400,000 monthly active users, up by 48% year-on-year with ARPU more than 50% higher than the average subscriber.
Bangladesh on next slide. While accelerating it’s shift to 4G and data, Banglalink recorded a revenue of 8.3% year-on-year growth in the quarter; it’s 4G subscriber base was up by 50% and data revenues grew by 24%. Our entertainment platform, Toffee, now has 6.4 million monthly active users, an increase of 2.6x year-on-year, while maintaining high engagement levels in terms of [indiscernible]. 70% of top users are non-Banglalink subscribers which makes probably a clear example of how our all-access digital service strategy is working in Bangladesh. Given the supportive macroeconomy and population dynamics, we strongly believe in the digital growth of this company. As part of our 2022/’24 plan, we intend to increase our 4G population coverage from 70% to 95% moving to full [ph] operating. This will enable the growth of our market share from it’s current level, about 18% to our fair share of spectrum which is in 12 to mid-20s….”