Celcom Axiata Berhad now has 9.67 million mobile subscribers as of Quarter 3, 2017 (3Q17), down from 9.93 million mobile subscribers it had in 2Q17. Celcom is a subsidiary of Axiata Group Berhad.
As of 3Q17, Celcom has 2.86 million postpaid subscribers and 6.8 million prepaid subscribers. It lost 263k mobile subscribers between July, August, September 2017 including 210k on prepaid and 53k on postpaid.
In terms of ARPU, Postpaid is up at RM84 (from RM82 in 2Q17) while Prepaid is at RM33 (RM31 in 2Q17).
About 67.3% of Celcom’s total mobile subscribers are data users. Data consumption rose 16.1% QoQ to 7.2GB, per month per active data user, compared to 6.2GB previously. Smartphone penetration in the network increased to 72% from 69% in 2Q17.
Celcom 4G LTE network coverage now stands at 82% nationwide while 4G LTE-A coverage is at 71%
For the latest quarter, Celcom grew its quarter-on-quarter (QoQ) service revenue and total revenue to RM1.524 billion and RM1.655 billion – marking an increase of 1.9% and 2.1%, respectively.
Data revenue now contributes 44% to the company’s total revenue, growing over 25% year-on-year (YoY) to RM730 million.
Normalised EBITDA (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation) totalled RM688 million, a 9.3% increase QoQ from RM630 million, with a focus on cost optimisation. The company delivered a lower normalised PATAMI (profit after tax, amortisation and minority interests) at RM309 million from RM331million in Q217.
Below are the several initiatives carried out for the quarter under review, according to Celcom:
- Celcom Pioneers With The First-Ever Smartphone Instalment Plan For Prepaid Through Easyphone – offers the widest range of smartphones through a 24-month instalment plan from as low as RM74 per month.
- Celcom Accelerates Further in Social Media with New Experience Hub – Celcom improves customer experience with a cross-functional centre, the first of its kind in Asia combining marketing, sales and service activities for social media channels.
- ParentsUnite for Online Safety and KidSafe – online safety awareness campaign and parental control mobile app for the safety of children.
- First ever e-gifting with OleOle – Celcom’s e-gifting service for consumers to purchase and send digital gifts from a large variety of popular brands, any time and from anywhere.
- Celcom First Brings You Your Perfect Match – postpaid plan for more Internet with up to 100GB of Internet and FREE 100GB Video Walla.
- Celcom Game Hero Awards A Brand New Car To Grand Prize Winner – Celcom awards Ahmad Fazli Ahmad Rusli the grand prize from the share of RM1million in cash prizes during the final showdown of the biggest mobile tournament in Malaysia, ‘Celcom Game Hero – Se7en Gear.’
- Celcom And Grab Collaborate To Enable Digital Lifestyle For Mobile Customers – Celcom partners with Grab to provide customers special benefits.
- The Major League Championed By Celcom Pits Renowned Dota 2 Teams In An Epic Battle – Celcom encourages e-sports for gaming enthusiasts.
- Celcom Axiata Supports National Champions Through To 2020 Olympics – Celcom steps in as the main sponsor of the Badminton Association of Malaysia (BAM) to take Malaysia’s badminton national champions to the 2020 Olympics.
- Celcom Powers up Sabah With 10x Faster High-Speed Fibre Internet at Affordable Prices – launches high-speed fibre internet connection services; Celcom Home Fibre & Celcom Business Fibre to provide 10 times faster unlimited internet download speeds of up to 100Mbps.
- Xpax Fuels All Digital Lifestyles With The Right Plans – new prepaid plan that offers up to 15GB of no-split internet quota together with FREE Music Walla and Video Walla.
Michael Kuehner, Chief Executive Officer of Celcom Axiata Berhad said Celcom demonstrated further signs of stabilisation following concentrated measures undertaken by the company, in an intensely competitive environment.
“I am encouraged by our overall operational turnaround that has been a work-in-progress since last year,” he noted.
Michael said Celcom had in Q3, made substantial improvements in customer experience.
“We have been persistent in our focus to improve our customers’ digital experience, as part of our commitment to deliver an awesome customer experience. One such initiative was to digitise customer service – to serve our customers better, end-to-end. We introduced real-time internal platforms for customer feedback and social listening and through these, we witnessed positive growth in reach and engagement,” he said.
Celcom was recently awarded the Best Consumer Satisfaction from the Malaysian Communication and Multimedia Commission (MCMC).
“Our focus is still on providing an awesome customer experience. We are on target to regain market share. I am optimistic about our operational efficiency in the next quarter following the progress of our current initiatives. We will certainly continue to increase productivity in focus areas such as people, innovation, technology and processes, through our strategic initiatives,” he concluded.
