Year-on-year growth of 37 per cent
Singapore Telecommunications Limited (SingTel), Asia Pacific's largest multi-market mobile operator, today announced that its aggregate mobile subscriber base in the region exceeded 44 million as at 31 December 2003.
The combined mobile subscriber base of SingTel, SingTel Optus and SingTel's four regional associates grew 37 per cent from about 32 million subscribers a year ago. On a proportionate basis, SingTel's mobile subscriber base in the six markets increased 39 per cent to 18.2 million during the same period.
The consolidated subscriber base of SingTel's four Asian mobile associates - Advanced Info Service, Bharti Group, Globe Telecom and Telkomsel - rose 43 per cent to 37.2 million as at 31 December 2003. All four operators enjoyed strong double-digit growth and maintained their respective share of the market.
SingTel's wholly-owned subsidiary Optus posted an 18 per cent growth in subscribers, bringing its base to 5.36 million as at 31 December 2003. The growth was achieved despite a mobile penetration of 77 per cent in Australia and Optus took market share and added more higher-value customers.
Optus has an on-going mobile coverage enhancement programme with the aim of providing improved coverage throughout Australia. Since 1999, it has built an average of one new mobile base station every day, and today the Optus mobile network provides mobile coverage to 94 per cent of Australia's population.
In Singapore, SingTel Mobile grew both its prepaid and postpaid subscriber base over the quarter even with the introduction of Mobile Number Portability in August 2003. Postpaid churn has remained at a very low 1.1 per cent a month, the result of successful customer retention.
To encourage greater use of mobile data services, SingTel Mobile has introduced IDEAS Direct, which pre-configures new mobile phone models with all the settings required for subscribers to enjoy WAP and GPRS services as well as to send and receive MMS. With this, subscribers can explore the various mobile data services available without the hassle of self configuration and the inconvenience of navigating through the different menus.
More details of the market and financial performance of the six mobile operations will be available when SingTel announces its results for the quarter ended 31 December 2003 on 5 February 2004.
| Aggregate subscriber base (millions) | SingTel's proportionate subscriber base (millions) | |||||
| Dec 03 | Sept 03 | Dec 02 | Dec 03 | Sept 03 | Dec 02 | |
| Optus | 5.36 | 5.07 | 4.54 | 5.36 | 5.07 | 4.54 |
| SingTel | 1.53 | 1.52 | 1.56 | 1.53 | 1.52 | 1.56 |
| SingTel's regional associates | 37.19 | 34.20 | 26.02 | 11.32 | 9.47 | 7.03 |
| Total | 44.08 | 40.79 | 32.12 | 18.21 | 16.06 | 13.13 |
About SingTel and Optus
SingTel, Asia's leading communications company, is reaping benefits of an international expansion strategy which has been successfully developed over the last 15 years. Operating out of two major centres, Singapore and Australia (through wholly-owned subsidiary SingTel Optus), the SingTel Group provides a comprehensive portfolio of services that include voice and data services over fixed, wireless and Internet platforms. The Group is well diversified in terms of business mix and geography.
SingTel Optus is Australia's leading integrated communications company - serving around six million customers each day. Since commencing operations in 1992, Optus has invested more than A$7 billion in the construction of fixed, mobile and satellite networks. Optus' mobile business unit has captured around one third of the total Australian GSM mobile market and leads the market in mobile data take-up.
Management of SingTel's and Optus' mobile networks has been integrated under one unit with the objective of reducing capital expenditure in the short term and achieving lower operating cost in the long term. Mobile services common to both SingTel and Optus will have the same platform across both countries, resulting in better economies of scale and lower operations and maintenance costs. The combined unit will also jointly develop new mobile applications, including 3G.
More information can be found @ www.singtel.com and www.optus.com.au.
About SingTel's regional mobile associates
AIS is the largest mobile communications operator in Thailand and is listed on the Stock Exchange of Thailand. The company's subscriber base jumped to 12.7 million as at end September 2003 from 9.8 million a year ago. Despite the keen competitive environment following the entry of new cellular operators, AIS remained the market leader with about 60 per cent market share as of end September 2003. SingTel has a 21.5 per cent stake in AIS.
The Bharti Group is India's leading private sector provider of integrated telecommunications services and is listed on the National Stock Exchange, Delhi Stock Exchange and the Stock Exchange of Mumbai. Bharti, which offers mobile services in 15 out of 23 circles in India, is the largest mobile operator in India with over 25 per cent market share. As of 30 September 2003, Bharti had about 4.6 million mobile subscribers. SingTel has a 28.5 per cent stake in Bharti.
Globe Telecom is one of the largest mobile communications service providers in the Philippines in terms of revenue and is listed on the Philippine Stock Exchange. As of 30 September 2003, Globe had 8.1 million mobile subscribers, up from 6.0 million a year ago. Subsequent to 30 September 2003, SingTel increased its stake in Globe from 29.1 per cent to 40.1 per cent.
Telkomsel is the leading operator of mobile communications services in Indonesia with a market share of over 53 per cent as of September 2003. Its subscriber base of 8.8 million customers as of September 2003 was up 76 per cent from 5 million a year ago. SingTel has a 35.0 per cent stake in Telkomsel.