Mid-year financial announcement by public listed company’s are usually indicators for how the outlook for the rest the year will be like. After six months of business the management team can chart the direction of their organisation more astutely and see if they need to steady the ship or charge it ahead.
In the case of Celcom, parent company Axiata has just released the second quarter financial results ending 30th June and has gone on to record a stellar growth in revenue attributed from overseas operation and improvement at home as well. Celcom made good by stemming the revenue shedding it had occurred in the past year and see the revenue now slowly moving upward, overall blended ARPU has also improved with this quarter recording the highest since 2015 at RM44. However stiff competition from new entrants is a cause for concern which is affecting the operators subscriber base, the telco continues to witness erosion on its prepaid segment, losing another 300, 000 customers. Celcom total base now stands at 9.9 million a stark comparison from its 2013 base of 13.1 million, Q3 last year the numbers stood at 11.1 million subsequently losing an average of 300k subs per quarter ever since.
Looking at the bright side, postpaid customer have regained confidence and the telco sees an uptake for their First Platinum and Gold plans, it added 30,000 new subscribers for the three months from April. Data is the growth sector with users requiring stronger network especially in urban centres, Celcom has been extensively upgrading its 4G and 4G+ services with population coverage already reaching 77%.
Newly launched incentives for Xpax users like the Easyphone plans and more data, will likely to take effect in the coming months for the prepaid segment. Competition will continue to play in this market as observers notice that prepaid customers are easily distracted and heavy migration will continue to occur. Celcom will be looking to up the ante, and we can expect more goodies being rolled out as Michael Kuehner and team continue to reshape the premier mobile network operator in the country.
