Singapore's SingTel expands mobile customer base by 23 per cent

Feb 8, 2010, 14:06 GMT

Singapore - Singapore Telecommunications Ltd, or SingTel, said Monday that its mobile customer base in the Asia-Pacific expanded to 285 million by the end of December, up 52 million, or 23 per cent, from a year earlier.

On a quarterly basis, the number of SingTel mobile customers in the region grew by more than 11 million from 273 million by end of September, South-East Asia's biggest telecommunications company said in a statement.

Of SingTel's eight markets - Australia, Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, Pakistan, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand - India showed the biggest year-on-year increase.

The mobile customer base of Indian associate Bharti rose by 39 per cent to 118.9 million at the end of December, while Indonesia's Telkomsel posted growth by 25 per cent to 81.6 million, SingTel said.

In Thailand, Advanced Info Service added 4.7 per cent customers compared with a year earlier, bringing the total number to 28.8 million December, it said.

Warid in Pakistan reported a 11-per-cent year-on-year increase to 18.8 million, while Bangladesh's PBTL signed up 7.7 per cent more mobile customers, bringing the total number to 1.9 million.

In the Philippines, however, SingTel associate Globe's mobile customer base dropped by 5.9 per cent year-on-year to 23.2 million, the company said, as it continued to churn out lower quality prepaid services.

SingTel's wholly owned Australian associate, Optus, expanded its mobile customer base by 8 per cent from a year ago to more than 8.2 million by end of December, said SingTel, while its Singapore market grew by 8.1 per cent to 3.2 million mobile customers.

SingTel said it would announce on Tuesday its results for the third quarter of its financial year, which ended December 31.