• Singtel leads with highest postpaid net adds in two years
• Optus continues strong growth in mobile and wireless broadband

Singapore, 10 November 2010 – Singapore Telecommunications Limited (Singtel) announced that the Group had another quarter of strong customer acquisitions and now has a footprint that covers more than 2 billion across Asia and Africa. The Group served 368 million mobile customers in 25 countries as at 30 September 2010, an increase of 35 per cent or 94.4 million from a year ago.

 *Proportionate share of mobile customers represents the total number of mobile customers of an associate multiplied by the Group’s effective percentage ownership in the associate at the respective dates. 

 ¹ Comparatives for 30 September 2009 exclude Bangladesh and Sri Lanka customers.

Bharti’s total mobile customer base across 19 countries covering India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and across Africa reached 188 million, an increase of 10.7 million from a quarter ago.

In India, its mobile customer base increased 30 per cent, or 32.8 million from a year ago, to 143 million as at 30 September 2010. Bharti’s mobile customer base in Africa grew 3.7 million or 10 per cent from a quarter ago to 40.1 million.

Telkomsel’s mobile customer base rose to 93.1 million, an increase of 17 per cent or 13.4 million from a year ago. AIS’ mobile customer base grew 2.2 million or 8 per cent from a year ago to 30.5 million.

Globe had 25.4 million mobile customers, an increase of 10 per cent or 2.3 million from a year ago. Warid had a mobile customer base of 17.2 million, a decline of 1.3 million or 7 per cent from a year ago.

PBTL's total mobile customer base was 1.9 million, 71,000 or 4 per cent lower than a year ago resulting from a change in regulatory definition of active customer base.

Optus continues strong growth in mobile and wireless broadband

Optus added 189,000 new mobile customers, through a combination of industry-leading offerings, continued focus on customer experience, and enhanced network performance. 

Optus’ overall mobile base is now 8.9 million, an 8 per cent increase from a year ago. Postpaid customer growth was particularly strong with net additions of 143,000 this quarter and total customer base grew 15 per cent year-on-year.

The number of Optus 3G subscribers increased to 4.5 million in the quarter, with wireless broadband subscribers now exceeding 1 million.

Singtel leads the market with highest postpaid net adds in two years

Singtel added 54,000 mobile customers in the quarter as a result of strong customer demand for smartphones. Total customer base increased 2 per cent from a year ago to 3.2 million, with a leading market share of 44.1 per cent as at 30 September 2010.

It added 39,000 new postpaid customers this quarter, the highest in two years, giving it a leading postpaid market share of 45.7 per cent.

Singtel added 15,000 prepaid customers this quarter, a reversal of two quarters of declines from the implementation of the reduced validity period of lower value cards and deactivation of inactive prepaid customers. As at 30 September 2010, total prepaid mobile customer base was 1.5 million, maintaining its lead of 42.4 per cent in the prepaid market.

More information on the performance of the Singtel Group will be available when it announces its results for the second quarter ended 30 September 2010 on 11 November 2010.