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SingTel reports a subscriber base of 216 million in financial Q2′08, a rise of 9.6%, adding 121,000 new subscribers. Bharti Airtel Ltd. and Indonesian associate PT Telkomsel added about 8.1 million subscribers, while Australian unit Optus grew by 182,000 subscribers. The profits of Singapore’s largest operator fell by 12% in Q2′08 as a strengthening local currency hurt the value of earnings from its units abroad.
Its net income for its Q2′08 fell to $577 million, down from $656 million a year earlier.
“Our expansion in the region subjects us to the volatility of the regional currencies,” SingTel Group Chief Executive Chua Sock Koong said. “A stronger Singapore dollar reduces our mobile associates’ earnings.”
SingTel’s stakes in regional operators such as India’s Bharti Airtel Ltd., Indonesia’s PT Telkomsel, the Philippines’ Globe Telecom Inc., Pakistan’s Warid Telecom Ltd., Pacific Bangladesh Telecom Ltd. and Thailand’s Advanced Info Service PCL account for more than half of the company’s profits.

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The Indonesian cellular operator, Telkomsel, predicts a subscriber base of more than 60 million by the year end and an addition of 10 million new subscribers in 2009.
PT Telkomsel’s Chief Executive Kiskenda Surihardja says, “We expect to get at least ten million new subscribers next year despite stiffer competition.”
According to the executive, in order to support a huge subscriber base, the operator is planning a capital expenditure of IDR14 trillion, next year.
“We will use our internal cash and look at possibility to issue rupiah bonds to help finance the capital expenditure,” he added.

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BruneiTimes writes…SINGAPORE Telecommuni-cations Ltd. (SingTel), Southeast Asia’s top phone firm, posted a weak 9.6 per cent rise in quarterly profit due to slower-than-expected Asian mobile growth, sending its stock down two per cent.

SingTel yesterday said that it would stick to previously issued guidance for flat full-year operating revenue and earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (Ebitda).

“The results are below our expectations,” said DBS Vickers Securities analyst Sachin Mittal.

“Ebitda margins for the domestic operations were hit by increased mobile subscriber acquisition and retention costs, while contributions from all the associates _ except for Bharti _ declined from the previous quarter,” he said, adding that its Australian unit, Optus, had performed in line.

SingTel owns nearly 31 per cent of India’s Bharti Airtel, the top operator in the world’s fastest growing mobile services market, and is keen to increase its stake in the country which has been adding about six million new customers a month.

Britain’s Sunday Telegraph reported SingTel had held talks with Vodafone about possibly buying its 10 per cent stake in Bharti if the British firm wins an auction for Hutchison Essar, India’s fourth biggest mobile operator.

“Whether Vodafone’s stake is open for sale is still very unclear. It is really premature for us to comment on any discussions (with Vodafone) at this stage,” Chief Financial Officer Chua Sock Koong told reporters.

Shares in SingTel, the city-state’s largest listed firm, sank as much as 2.3 per cent to S$3.42 in morning trade in Singapore after its results. Its Sydney-listed stock fell as much as four per cent to A$2.86. SingTel made underlying net profit before goodwill and exceptional items of S$850 million (US$555 million) in the fiscal third quarter to the end of December against a restated S$775 million a year ago.

The result was below an average net profit forecast of S$926.8 million from a Reuters survey of four analysts.

Attributable net profit was S$994 million, up 12.6 per cent from a restated S$882 million the year before, boosted by a one-time gain of S$144 million from the sale of a property.

Battling heavy competition at home, where the mobile phone penetration rate has reached 100 per cent, SingTel has spent about S$20 billion in recent years buying firms in high-growth Asian countries and in the bigger Australian market.

It now derives about 75 per cent of revenues and two-thirds of pre-tax earnings from operations outside Singapore.

Optus, Australia’s second-largest mobile operator and SingTel’s single-biggest revenue and profit generator, posted a 15 per cent fall in quarterly net profit to A$135 million (US$105 million), as operating revenue rose 3.1 per cent. Ebitda margins were stable at 26 per cent for the third straight quarter despite challenging market conditions.

“Optus continues to show its resilience in a competitive Australian market and is delivering in line with guidance,” outgoing SingTel Chief Executive Lee Hsien Yang said.

The unit, which has a third of the Australian mobile market, has been grappling with cut-throat price competition, ebbing subscriber growth and regulatory changes.

SingTel’s A$14 billion Optus bid in 2001 was its largest and most controversial deal under Lee, who said last July he would leave the group. CFO Chua will take over in April.

The company also owns 21.5 per cent of Thailand’s Advanced Info Service , 44.6 per cent of Globe Telecom in the Philippines, 35 per cent of Indonesia’s PT Telkomsel and 45 per cent of Pacific Bangladesh Telecom.

Pretax profit from its affiliates grew 17 per cent to S$506 million in the quarter, driven mainly by Bharti, but this is down from a 46 per cent rise to S$529 million in the previous quarter.

Some of the associates are seeing slower growth. AIS warned of weak 2006 profits on fierce price competition and political instability, while Globe posted a 39 per cent slump in fourth-quarter profit, hit by higher marketing expenses.

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The country’s largest cellular operator, PT Telkomsel, launched its third-generation (3G) service Tuesday, marking the first commercial introduction of 3G to
Indonesia.”Today marks the start of a new era in the world of Indonesian cellular telecommunications,” said Telkomsel president director Kiskenda Suriahardja. With its advanced technology, 3G allows its users to combine voice, text, pictures and video-streaming, plus broadband internet connection operating on mobile interfaces that are equipped for 3G. All these services can be accessed at a much faster pace than is the case with the existing 2.5G technology. During the kick-off ceremony, Telkomsel signed contracts for network deployment with vendors Nokia and Ericsson, and will do so later with Siemens, to support the rollout of Telkomsel’s 3G network. Telkomsel also signed collaboration agreements with 4 initial content providers — SCM, Metro TV, Bizcom and Elasitas — in order to provide a large selection of content through live mobile TV services, video-on-demand streaming and video downloading. In addition, Kiskenda said that Telkomsel had also entered into collaborative arrangements with another 162 local and foreign content providers. “During the initial stage, 3G services will be available in nine big cities:
Medan,
Palembang, Batam,
Jakarta,
Bandung,
Semarang,
Yogyakarta,
Surabaya,
Bali,
Makassar and
Balikpapan,” Kiskenda said. “At the end of the year, they will be available in 20 cities,” he added.

Kiskenda explained that the rollout of 3G around the country over the next three years would cost Rp 3 trillion.

“We are optimistic that by 2009, we will have arrived at breakeven point for the overall investment,” he said. Regarding charges, Kiskenda said that these would be determined by the type of services required, the data capacity of the downloaded content, roaming expenses and basic costs. Also on Tuesday, Telkomsel launched a customer pre-registration program through which Telkomsel customers who already have a 3G-equipped phone can sign up by simply sending a text message for the chance to become part of the initial group of 10,000 early adopters to experience Telkomsel’s 3G services firsthand. Kiskenda explained that before launching its 3G services, the company had conducted numerous trials and evaluations to make sure that everything would run smoothly. He said that as of the second week in August, the number of Telkomsel customers stood at 31.5 million and that this figure was expected to reach 35 million by the end of the year, accounting for about 55 percent of the country’s total cellular users.

In addition to Telkomsel, PT Exelcomindo Pratama, PT Indosat, PT Natrindo Telepon Seluler (Lippo Telecom) and PT Cyber Access Communications also hold 3G licenses.

Source- http://www.thejakartapost.com

Technorati : 3G, Indonesia, Mobile, PT Telkomsel
Ice Rocket : 3G, Indonesia, Mobile, PT Telkomsel