Singapore Telecommunications (SingTel) announced a double-digit growth in net profit and double digit growth in revenue for its fourth quarter ended 31 March 2008, driven by its Singapore business, which posted another record number of mobile net additions, and the strengthening of the Australian dollar. Group revenue in the three months ended 31 March 2008 increased 11 per cent to S$3.76 billion from S$3.38 billion a year ago. Underlying net profit for the quarter posted a 9.2 per cent gain to S$968 million from S$886 million, helped by a strong performance from the regional mobile associates.
Some operational highlights:
In Singapore revenue from Data & Internet grew 12 per cent to S$356 million in the fourth quarter driven mainly by strong corporate data and broadband growth.
For the quarter, SingTel added 19,000 broadband customers and retained its leadership position with 54.3 per cent market share.
SingTel’s Wireless@SG also attracted 496,000 customers since its introduction of which 203,000 do not subscribe to SingNet’s residential broadband service.
Mobile Communications posted another strong quarter with revenue increasing 15 per cent to S$339 million from a year ago. In a market with a penetration level of 129 per cent, SingTel added a record 244,000 subscribers in the fourth quarter. This brings SingTel’s total number of users to 2.57 million with a market share of 43.4 per cent.
SingTel added 207,000 prepaid customers to 1.19 million users and 37,000 postpaid users as at 31 March 2008.Average revenue per user rose 2 per cent for postpaid customers and 16 per cent for prepaid customers from a year ago.
During the next fiscal year, capital expenditure in Singapore as a percentage of operating revenue is expected to rise to mid-teens level because of mobile capacity expansion and an upgrade of the fixed-line network.
In Australia, Optus achieved a 4.5 per cent increase in revenue to A$1.94 billion despite the ACCC’s mandated reduction in mobile termination rates by 25 per cent to 9 cents per minute from 1 July 2007 and Optus’ decision to exit the unprofitable consumer fixed-line resale market.
Optus Mobile operating revenue grew 6.5 per cent to A$1.09 billion with 135,000 new subscribers added in the quarter, including 87,000 postpaid additions, taking the total number of mobile customers to 7.14 million. 3G customer numbers increased 21 per cent from a quarter ago to 1.4 million.
Mobile EBITDA margin was 35 per cent, declining 4 percentage points from a year ago reflecting acquisition and retention costs to grow the postpaid segment.
SMS and other data revenue were at 29 per cent of ARPU, up from 26 per cent a year ago with stimulation of SMS and increased take-up of data services. The proportion of non-SMS data revenue grew to 6.0 per cent of ARPU in the current quarter compared to 4.2 per cent a year ago.
On 7 May 2008, Optus announced it would embark on a further investment program to expand its nationwide mobile network beyond 96 per cent population coverage to reach 98 per cent by December 2009.
The 3G network provided coverage to 68 per cent of the population as at 31 March 2008.
During the quarter, Optus Consumer and SMB Fixed saw continued Unbundled Local Loop (ULL) growth, with 317,000 customers provisioned with telephony and/or broadband services.
As at 31 March 2008, Optus had installed equipment in 357 ULL exchanges. The ULL build will comprise a total of 366 exchanges with a coverage footprint of 2.9 million premises.
Wireless Mobile Telecom Wireless News
SingTel, Bharti Airtel, Globe Telecom and SingTel’s subsidiary Optus have signed an agreement with Apple to offer the iPhone in their respective markets later this year, an Associated Press report said.
SingTel will sell the multimedia gadget in Singapore, Bharti Airtel in India, Globe Telecom in the Philippines and Optus in Australia, the companies said in a brief joint statement, without giving details.
SingTel owns Optus and holds a 30.5% stake in Bharti and 44.5% in Globe. As of December 31, 2007, SingTel had about 2.3 million mobile subscribers in Singapore and around 7 million in Australia.
Bharti currently has about 64 million subscribers, while Globe reported a 21.3 million mobile subscriber base for the quarter ended March 31.
The announcement comes as Apple looks to expand sales of the iPhone, a combination phone, music player and web browser, that was launched in the US in 2007, the Associated Press report said.
Earlier, America Movil, the top mobile phone operator in Latin America, said it inked a deal to bring the iPhone to more than a dozen countries in that region starting later this year, the report said.
Apple has so far signed exclusive deals for the iPhone with AT&T in the US, O2 in Britain, T-Mobile in Germany and France Telecom’s Orange wireless arm in France, the report further said.
Wireless Mobile Telecom Wireless News
- February 5th, 2008
- 2:00 pm
Singapore Telecommunications (SingTel) has seen its combined mobile subscriber base reach 171.54 million at the end of last year. Its mobile subscriber base in the eight markets (Australia, Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, Pakistan, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand) went up by 53 percent from 112.28 million customers a year ago, boosted by the addition of Warid Telecom’s 13.21 million subscribers in Pakistan. India’s Bharti saw its subscriber base go up to 55.16 million, adding 6.29 million new subscribers in the last quarter. Telkomsel (Indonesia) has the second largest number of mobile subscribers among the associates, it added 3.43 million subscribers to bring its total mobile subscriber base to 47.89 million. AIS (Thailand), Globe Telecom (the Philippines), PBTL (Bangladesh) and Warid Telecom also posted healthy subscriber growth of between 4.4 percent and 11.3 percent during the quarter. In its home market, Singapore, SingTel ended 200 with a mobile subscriber base of 2.33 million after adding 197,000 new customers. SingTel saw its highest quarterly jump in 3G subscribers, growing to 749,000, an increase of 120,000 customers from a quarter ago. 3G subscribers now make up more than half (56%) of SingTel’s postpaid mobile subscriber base. Optus (Australia) exceeded the 7-million mark, adding 108,000 new mobile subscribers. The number of 3G subscribers with Optus increased to 1.16 million, up 288,000 subscribers or 33 percent from a quarter ago.
Wireless Mobile Telecom Wireless News
- November 6th, 2007
- 11:30 am
Singapore Telecommunications (SingTel) has seen its total subscriber-base in Asia reach 157.97 million at the end of September. Year-on-year the customer base grew by 57 percent from about 100.77 million customers. Bharti (India) and Telkomsel (Indonesia) had the largest subscriber growth in the group. Bharti added 6.17 million net mobile subscribers in quarter to reach 48.88 million with the bulk being prepaid subscribers while Telkomsel added 1.65 million subscribers to reach 44.46 milion. Warid Telecom, SingTel’s latest investment in Pakistan, contributed 11.87 million subscribers to the group. In its home-market, SingTel reached 2.13 million after adding 185,000 new customers, of which 163,000 were prepaid users. Optus (Australia) added 92,000 new subscribers of which 62,000 were postpaid, to reach 6.89 million in total. The number of 3G subscribers with Optus reached 868,000, up 27 percent quarter-on-quarter. On 7 November the company will issue its financial results.
Wireless Mobile Telecom Wireless News
- October 8th, 2007
- 2:31 pm
Australian operator Optus has successfully launched the Optus D2 satellite into orbit from French Guiana. Optus is focused on providing broadcasting and broadband services to customers, as well as providing wholesale satellite access to companies delivering subscription TV and internet services. The D-series satellites enable the company to provide additional services to customers with growth opportunities in the subscription TV and ethnic services broadcast sectors and additional in-orbit redundancy to 2020 and beyond, according to Paul Sheridan, head of Optus Satellite. The Optus D2 satellite will replace the Optus B3 satellite.
Wireless Mobile Telecom Wireless News
- August 28th, 2007
- 7:43 am
A senior Optus executive revealed that the consortium, known as G9, was considering the proposal in its bid to win regulatory concessions from the federal government to build the network.
Public debate over the new network has been dominated by proposals that rely on using fibre optic cable to boost broadband speeds.
Optus regulatory economics manager Jason Ockerby said the consortium was “not just confined to copper”.
Mr Ockerby was responding to questions raised at a broadband seminar last week on whether Optus had considered the cost of maintaining Telstra’s ageing copper network as part of the consortium’s bid.
Optus was testing broadband over powerlines with several utility providers including Integral Energy, Energy Australia and CitiPower, he said.
An Optus spokeswoman declined to comment on the trials when contacted yesterday.
“Optus regularly conducts technology trials and we rarely comment on them,” she said.
Broadband over powerlines would provide the G9 with an alternative to fibre-based broadband technology that relied on Telstra’s copper network.
Telstra has maintained that it would use all legal means at its disposal to block rivals gaining access to its copper to build the new network.
There are three main proposals to boost broadband speed in Australia and all rely on using Telstra’s copper network for last-mile access to homes and premises.
Wireless Mobile Telecom Wireless News
- August 7th, 2007
- 12:07 pm
Australia’s five largest telecommunications service providers earned around AUD 18.1 billion from retail services in 2005-06, up from AUD 17.92 billion in the year-earlier period, according to a report from the Australian Competition & Consumer Commission (ACCC). Internet and mobile services each contributed to the continued growth in retail revenues, and have offset reductions in fixed-line revenues. Telstra earned around 60 percent and Optus earned around 26 percent of retail revenues. Telstra’s retail market share remained strongest in fixed-line services, where it earned around 75 percent of reported revenues.
Total revenue from PSTN services for Telstra, Optus, Primus and AAPT fell 7.8 percent from AUD 8.8 billion in 2004-05 to AUD 8.1 billion in 2005-06. Total revenue from retail mobile services increased by 4.5 percent to AUD 7.8 billion. Total mobile minutes continued to increase, with carriers reporting over 19 billion voice minutes in 2005-06. Total revenue from internet services, including dial-up, cable and ADSL, rose 32.5 percent to AUD 2.16 billion with revenues from ADSL services increasing 85 percent to AUD 807 million.
Wireless Mobile Telecom Wireless News
Optus has formed a partnership with MySpace.com, to offer Optus mobile customers exclusive access to the MySpace Mobile Service from 01 August on their handset and via the Optus Zoo portal. Optus mobile customers will gain exclusive access to MySpace Mobile for three months following the launch. Optus has worked closely with MySpace.com to customise the site to suit a mobile device. MySpace services available to Optus mobile customers include login/logout, blog, view friends, add friends, searching, viewing photos, profile details, post comment, read/manage mail, and networking.
Wireless Mobile Telecom Wireless News
Optus has formed a partnership with MySpace.com, to offer Optus mobile customers exclusive access to the MySpace Mobile Service from 01 August on their handset and via the Optus Zoo portal. Optus mobile customers will gain exclusive access to MySpace Mobile for three months following the launch. Optus has worked closely with MySpace.com to customise the site to suit a mobile device. MySpace services available to Optus mobile customers include login/logout, blog, view friends, add friends, searching, viewing photos, profile details, post comment, read/manage mail, and networking.
Wireless Mobile Telecom Wireless News
Deutsche Telekom (DT) is rumoured to be considering entering a bid to build a high-speed fibre-optic broadband network for Australia’s cities. The Australian press suggest that DT, Europe’s biggest telecoms company by revenues, has already lined up financial backers for a possible bid for the multi-billion project. A final decision on whether to join the competitive tender process awaits the release of bidding rules by a taskforce set up by Prime Minister John Howard’s government, the Sydney Morning Herald disclosed.
A bid from DT would be a setback for Telstra, the former government-owned telco. It has already been sidelined in the race for AUD1 billion (USD840 million) in government funding towards building a broadband network for rural areas - a job that went to a consortium that contains major rival Optus, the second-largest Australian telco by revenues.
Wireless Mobile Telecom Wireless News
SingTel Adds 244,000 Mobile Subscribers, Market Penetration at 129%
