• Bharti added record 6.17 million to reach 48.88 million mobile subscribers

• Addition of 11.87 million customers from latest associate Warid Telecom in Pakistan

• Singtel set new benchmark of 2.13 million mobile subscribers with record addition of 163k prepaid customers in Singapore

Singapore, 6 November 2007 -- Singapore Telecommunications Limited (Singtel) today announced that the aggregate number of mobile subscribers in the region, including its associates, has reached 157.97 million as at 30 September 2007.

On a year-on-year basis, its mobile subscriber base in the eight markets – Australia, Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, Pakistan, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand – grew strongly by 57 per cent from about 100.77 million customers. Warid Telecom, its latest investment in Pakistan, contributed 11.87 million subscribers.

Bharti and Telkomsel with most number of subscribers in the Group

Bharti posted the largest subscriber growth rate among the regional associates for the quarter.  It added a record 6.17 million net mobile subscribers to bring its total mobile subscriber base to 48.88 million as at 30 September 2007. Growth came mainly from prepaid customers who made up 95.4 per cent of the net mobile subscribers added during the quarter.

Telkomsel had the second largest number of mobile subscribers among the associates.  It added 1.65 million subscribers in the quarter to bring its total mobile subscriber base to 44.46 million.  This is an increase of nearly 12 million or 37 per cent compared to a year ago.

Warid Telecom included for first time

Our latest mobile associate, Warid Telecom in Pakistan, had a reported 11.87 million mobile customers which were included for the first time this quarter.  Singtel acquired a 30 per cent equity stake in the company in September 2007.

New benchmark set in Singapore

In Singapore, Singtel set a new benchmark with its mobile subscriber base reaching 2.13 million as at 30 September 2007. 

During the quarter, it saw an increase of 185,000 mobile subscribers, mainly from the record addition of 163,000 prepaid mobile subscribers.  Continuing the growth trajectory from the preceding quarter, prepaid mobile market share rose to 35.3 per cent from 31.7 per cent a quarter ago. This reflected Singtel’s success in penetrating the foreign worker segment by boosting its value offerings and expanding its distribution.

Optus gained momentum in postpaid segment

Supported by new product launches and innovative customer acquisition activities, Singtel Optus maintained its scale and grew its customer base.  In the quarter ended 30 September 2007, it added 92,000 mobile customers of which 65,000 were postpaid, the highest quarterly postpaid net adds in over two years.

Optus total mobile customer base reached 6.89 million, a 4.5 per cent increase compared to a year ago.  As at 30 September, 868,000 subscribers had been provisioned with 3G services, an increase of 27 percent compared to the preceding quarter.

Regional mobile subscriber base at a glance

Details of the performance of the regional mobile operations will be available when Singtel announces its results for the second quarter and half year ended 30 September 2007 on 7 November 2007.