Singapore, 7 November 2006 -- Singapore Telecommunications Limited (Singtel) today announced that the aggregate number of its mobile subscribers in the region has exceeded 100 million as at 30 September 2006.   This is the largest mobile customer base in Asia outside ofChina.

 

The combined mobile subscriber base of Singtel, Singtel Optus and the Group’s five regional associates grew 36 per cent to reach  100.8 million customers from about 74 million customers a year ago. 

 

Compared to the previous quarter, this figure represents an increase of 8.4 million customers. It is the highest quarterly growth in mobile numbers registered by the Singtel Group. ¹

On a proportionate basis, Singtel’s subscriber base in the seven markets – Australia,Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand – increased 31 per cent from a year ago to more than 38 million. 

 

The strongest growth came from Bharti and Telkomsel.   As at 30 September 2006, Bharti’s total subscriber base was 27.1 million .  On a year-on-year basis, this is a record subscriber growth of 92 per cent.  Telkomsel also added a record 3.2 million in net new subscribers in the current quarter. Its total mobile subscriber base of 32.5 million represents a 38 per cent increase from a year ago.

 

In Australia, Singtel Optus added 46,000 customers for the quarter, increasing its mobile customer base to 6.60 million.   This represents an 8.5 per cent rise year-on-year.  The growth was achieved in a highly competitive market.  As of 30 September 2006, there were 184,000 subscribers provisioned with 3G services.

 

Singtel saw an increase of 81,000 mobile subscribers - a record quarterly addition – to reach 1.70 million mobile customers in Singapore as at 30 September 2006.   The rise was largely boosted by the good response to Singtel’s “Hot $100” promotion where prepaid mobile subscribers pay only $28 for $100 worth of call value.  The number of 3G subscribers also increased to 259,000 from 191,000 a quarter ago.

At a glance

 

 

More details of the market and financial performance of the seven mobile operations will be available when Singtel announces its results for the second quarter and half year ended 30 September 2006 on 8 November 2006.

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