Mobile News

Singtel mobile customer base grows 7.3% in Q4 February 10, 2009

SingTel reported a mobile customer base of 232.422 million at the end of 2008, up 35 percent from a year earlier and up 7.3 percent from September. The customer base includes its operations in Australia, Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, Pakistan, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand. Proportionate for its ownership, the operator had 82.364 million customers at year-end, up 34 percent from 2007 and up 6.8 percent from the third quarter. In its home market, the total mobile customer base rose to 2.942 million from 2.874 million in September. A total of 68,000 new mobile customers were added during the quarter of which 30,000 were postpaid net additions, with continued good take-up of Apple’s iPhone 3G, SingTel said. The operator’s largest affiliate market is India, where Bharti Airtel grew its base to 85.65 million at the end of 2008, from 77.48 million three months earlier. Telkomsel in Indonesia finished the year with 65.30 million customers, up from 60.50 million in Q3, and AIS in Thailand added 1.3 million customers in Q4 for a total 27.40 million at year-end. Australian operator Optus increased its base to 7.63 million from 7.42 million in September. Optus attracted 213,000 new customers, including 104,000 postpaid in the quarter, compared to 182,000 in the preceding quarter. Optus’ 3G subscriber base now stands at 2.33 million, an increase of 7.9 percent over the previous quarter. Globe Telecom in the Philippines grew to 24.70 million subscribers from 23.75 million three months earlier. In Pakistan, Warid grew its total customer base to 16.9 million, up 28 per cent year-on-year or 4.7 percent from a quarter ago. CityCell’s mobile customer base in Bangladesh was 1.8 million, up 29 percent from a year ago or 3.7 percent from a quarter ago.

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