Packet One Networks(P1) has 505,000 subscribers as of the end of September this year.
Between July-September(quarter 3) this year, an additional 38,000 customers signed up for P1’s latest broadband plans and services. The WiMAX operator currently has some 435,000 broadband subscribers and 70,000 voice subscribers.
Current ARPU stands at RM78, a drop from RM80 in the previous quarter. P1 claims that the drop is due to the promotional packages offered in the third quarter.
During the period, P1 also added some 91 base station(sites) mostly in West Malaysia bringing up the total WiMAX sites to 1791 nationwide or some 60% broadband coverage in human populated areas in Malaysia.
P1 launched its broadband service in Sabah back in September and according to Puan Chan Cheong, Group Managing Director of Green Packet Berhad, the service will be extended to Kuching, Sarawak in the next few months.
When asked about LTE, P1 CEO Michael Lai told MalaysianWireless that the company will make the necessary announcement when the time right. Malaysia is set to launch 4G LTE service starting in January next year. P1 is one of the 9 service provider in the country that has been given the spectrum to launch the next generation service.
Kelvin Lee, Senior General Manager of Green Packet Berhad told MalaysianWireless that the company will soon launch its first FDD-LTE Multi-Mode Modem(MD235) early next year. The new modem will support the type of LTE network that Maxis, Celcom and DiGi will launch next year. It will also be backwards compatible with existing networks such as 3G(HSPA+) and WiFi.
Kelvin also said that a new TD-LTE dual mode modem(DA235) will be made available by the end of this year. The DA235 will support the existing WiMAX network and soon to be launched TD-LTE networks by operators such as P1, Yes, REDtone and Asiaspace.
At the third financial quarter media briefing yesterday, Green Packet Berhad announced that it recorded a revenue of RM159.8 million, a 16% rise from RM138.3 million in quarter-on-quarter comparison.
P1 contributed RM82 million to Green Packet’s revenue and registered a positive EBITDA of RM8.4 million for Q3 FY12.
Green Packet posted an operational loss of RM22.1 million, but narrowed the loss by 31% from RM32 million a year ago and RM31.9 in the previous quarter(Q2 2012). The group registered a better-than-expected RM9.2 million EBITDA in 3Q, 114% up from previous quarter’s RM4.3 million.
Green Packet is currently the No.3 WiMAX vendor in the world after Samsung and Motorola.
