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SINGAPORE - NEW subscribers from India and Pakistan helped Singapore Telecommunications (SingTel) to boost its Asia-Pacific mobile phone subscriptions to 157.97 million by the end of September.
The latest number of subscribers is 57 per cent higher than the 100.77 million a year earlier and up 16 per cent from 136.35 million at end of June.
SingTel's mobile subscriber figures for the September quarter included 11.87 million mobile customers from its Pakistani associate, Warid Telecom. SingTel invested a 30-per-cent stake in Warid in September this year.
India's Bharti, in which SingTel has 30.45 per cent interest, added a record 6.17 million net mobile subscribers during the quarter, bringing its total mobile subscriber base to 48.88 million.
SingTel said in a news release on Tuesday that Bharti posted the largest subscriber growth rate among its regional associates for the quarter.
Indonesia's Telkomsel, which is 35 per cent held by SingTel, had the second largest number of subscribers.
It got another 1.65 million subscribers, bringing its total mobile subscriber base to 44.46 million. The increase is nearly 37 per cent or 12 million over a year ago.
New benchmark in S'pore
In Singapore, SingTel's mobile subscriber base rose 185,000 to 2.13 million.
The increase came mainly from prepaid mobile subscribers.
'Continuing the growth trajectory from the preceding quarter, prepaid mobile market share rose 35.3 per cent from 31.7 a quarter ago.'
'This reflected SingTel's success in penetrating the foreign worker segment by boosting its value offerings and expanding its distribution.'
In Australia, its Optus unit added 92,000 mobile customers, of which 65,000 were postpaid, the highest postpaid increase in over two years.
Optus' subscriber numbers rise 4.5 per cent to 6.89 million from a year ago.
SingTel has been acquiring stakes in mobile phone operators across the region to tap faster-growing markets and reduce its dependence on the mature Singapore and Australian telecom markets.
Regional mobile subscriber base at a glance | | | Aggregate Subscriber Base
(million) | SingTel’s Proportionate
Subscriber Base (million) | |
| Sep 07 | Jun 07 | Sep 06 | Sep 07 | Jun 07 | Sep 06 | |
SingTel | 2.13 | 1.95 | 1.70 | 2.13 | 1.95 | 1.70 | | Optus | 6.89 | 6.80 | 6.60 | 6.89 | 6.80 | 6.60 | |
Regional associates | 148.95 | 127.60 | 92.47 | 47.85 | 41.27 | 30.08 | |
Total | 157.97 | 136.35 | 100.77 | 56.87 | 50.01 | 38.38 |
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