The Singaporean wireless and broadband operator M1 has reported a 6.3% increase in service revenue for the year ended 31 December 2013, to SGD819.8 million (USD642.3 million). The results were driven by growth in post-paid mobile use and in its fixed customer base, as well as higher revenue from mobile data services. Operating revenue declined 6.4% year-on-year to SGD1.01 billion due to lower handset sales, while net profit after tax was up 9.4% y-o-y to SGD160.2 million.
The firm said that mobile data usage continued to grow in 2013 and revenue from non-voice services rose 4.0 percentage points y-o-y to 41.6% of service revenue. As at end-2013, M1’s mobile customer base stood at 2.11 million, with post-paid customer numbers growing by 35,000 over the twelve-month period. M1 also added 33,000 fibre broadband customers during the year to bring the subscriber total to 85,000 as at end-2013.
Karen Kooi, Chief Executive Officer of M1, commented: ‘Growth in 2014 will be driven by mobile data and fixed services. Mobile data will [in turn] be driven by customers upgrading their smartphone plans and [the] increasing adoption of smartphones by prepaid customers. Fixed services will benefit from the increasing fibre adoption in both the consumer and enterprise segments.’