Last few months subscribers would have seen intense marketing on new postpid and prepaid plans, as the big telco’s compete to regain market share after experiencing major shifts on users behaviour in the first half of the year. One of the observation is how the big three continue to lose subscriber base especially in the highly volatile prepaid segment, subsequently impacting their average revenue per unit or ARPU as known in the industry. Despite the loss, all three managed to increase their revenue for quarter three ending September, with Celcom having the highest percentage growth in this extremely challenging environment.
With total subscriber base of 9.67 million, Celcom is still at number three behind Digi and Maxis but continues to outperform Digi in terms of revenue, hauling in RM1.65 billion for the quarter compared to RM1.47 from the leader. Maxis maintains its record with RM2.217 billion and enjoy’s the highest ARPU in the industry mainly attributing from its postpaid segment. Celcom did see an increase in ARPU for its prepaid to RM33, Digi is at RM41 and Maxis is at RM42, as for Postpaid Maxis holds in at RM102, Celcom at RM84 and Digi at RM77.
Data revenue is seen as the sparkle, growing 25% year on year contributing 44% to the company’s overall revenue. Michael Kuehner, CEO Celcom said “the company demonstrated further signs of stabilisation following concentrated measures, undertaken by the Celcom in an intensely competitive environment.” The telco has been recovering on many fronts since 2016, from network issues to customer service the deficits have been addressed by Kuehner and his new team with an internal transformation program, having been losing revenue quarter on quarter, the hard work can be seen in the last 6 months as commented by the CEO.
The playing field will continue to be challenging, newbie’s like U Mobile and Unifi Mobile (formerly Webe) will be launching new prepaid plans to fullfill year end targets set by their funders. Postpaid segment will have less challenges and with the iPhone X launch, the segment will be able to sustain and grow organically for the next few months. Celcom has been consistent in its strategy with long term and immediate solutions, initiatives like Customer Experience Hub in keeping its ears and eyes out there and listening to its customers and general consumers using real time analytics will give the operator insights to deliver better and more efficient products in the future.
