M1 to launch new services for users in Singapore
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: In a bid to increase market share in both the residential and business sector, a plethora of new services has been planned to be launched by Singaporean wireless operator MobileOne Asia (M1).
Besides the telecom operator has also planned to offer corporate customers internet access and fixed telephony services along with ancillary products such as security and surveillance.
According to M1 chief executive officer Karen Kooi, the firm has already started work on launching a pay-TV service via both mobile TV and through the internet adding that if a government proposal concerning the development of ‘common’ set-top boxes comes to fruition, it will also launch a TV service via that platform.
However, it has not yet been revealed when these services would be launched but at the same time it has been made clear that M1 would ‘not bid for exclusive or premium content’, but instead would ‘perhaps cross carry’.
0.1% growth in M1′s FY2009 net income
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: A full year net profit of SGD150.3 million (USD107.9 million) in 2009 has been announced by Singaporean fixed and wireless operator MobileOne Asia (M1). The growth is just 0.1% from the previous year and the revenue is SGD782 million, down 2.4% year-on-year in a difficult economic climate and trading environment.
However, the company recorded a growth of 1.3% on the EBITDA margin on service revenue as a result of ongoing cost management initiatives. 40,000 new customers have been added by the cellco in 2009 for an end-year total of 1.758 million. The company attributed the growth to the decision to sell the almost ubiquitous Apple iPhone.
Even the broadband consumer base grew last year and the revenue from non-voice services also increased slightly, contributing 26% of service revenue, up from 23.4% in the corresponding year-earlier period
M1 reports 7.6% rise in Q4 profits; forecasts 50% rise in data revenues in 2007-08
Telegeography writes…Singapore’s smallest mobile operator by subscribers MobileOne Asia (M1) yesterday reported a 7.6% rise in fourth-quarter profits to SGD39.8 million (USD26 million) on the back of strong subscriber gains and a marked rise in revenues from data services. Buoyed by the encouraging performance, the company is now predicting sales from data services, including SMS texting, will rise by 50% in the next twelve to 18 months. M1 chief executive officer Neil Montefiore said in an interview: ‘Thirty percent of the revenue will come from data and other non-voice such as SMS,’ up from 20.1% in the fourth quarter 2006. Montefiore is banking on strong demand for data services to lift earnings as revenues from voice calls decline. In the fourth quarter of 2006 M1 reported that voice calls accounted for 79.9% of total revenues, compared with 80.4% a year earlier.
M1 launched a high speed internet access service for residential users in December, using high speed downlink packet access (HSDPA) technology, offering download speeds of up to 3.6Mbps. The cellco says it has signed up around 10,000 data subscribers on its home access and 3G mobile networks, and expects to add about 3,000 to 5,000 data users a month during the course of 2007. Montefiore added that the increased focus on data had made a positive impact on monthly average revenue per user (ARPU). The ARPU for data services rose 56% from a year earlier to SGD41.80 in the fourth quarter.
M1 had 1.337 million mobile users at the end of December 2006, a market share of 28.5%, down from 29.1% a year earlier, but a rise from 28.4% in the third quarter. It hopes to expand its user base when Singapore adopts mobile number portability (MNP) from the fourth quarter.
