By Claire Reilly
Singtel, the parent company of Optus, released its third quarter results today, shedding light on the performance of the Australian telco and the changing state of mobile use in Australia.
Operating on a different fiscal calendar to the majority of Australian businesses, the Singaporean company announced a 4.8 per cent decline in group revenues for the third quarter ended 31 December 2012, down to $4.6 billion (in Singapore dollars).
Revenues for the Optus business also fell by 5.7 per cent when measured in Australian dollars, down to AUD $2.28 billion. This represented a fall of 8.1 per cent in Singaporean currency, down to SGD $2.9 billion.
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The negative result in Australia was attributed to a restructure of the Optus business, according to the results release.
“In Australia, Optus is restructuring the business to drive profitable growth, improve customer experience and capitalise on the growing demand for mobile data,” the release read. “Against a backdrop of an industry slowdown and mandated mobile termination rate cuts, Optus reported stable results.”
The breakdown of prepaid versus postpaid mobile users has also changed, with Optus the net addition of 58,000 new postpaid customers during the quarter. Consumers on postpaid plans now make up 57 per cent of Optus’ local business — an increase of 3 percentage points year-on-year.
According to Singtel, “Higher churn from prepaid wireless broadband products, together with reduced prepaid device subsidies, contributed to a decline in the prepaid customer base by 36,000”.
Singtel also updated the industry on the roll out of Optus’ 4G network in Australia, with coverage “extended” to Brisbane and the Gold Coast, in addition to the telco’s coverage in “major capital cities including Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Perth. The company also confirmed it has now upgraded more than Australian 4,000 sites to enhance 3G coverage across the country.