Optus chief executive, Allen Lew.
SingTel subsidiary, Optus (ASX:SGT) has experienced an 8.2 per cent decline in net profit to $208 million for its third quarter ending December 31. At the same time last year, the telco recorded $227 million net profit.
The decline was put down to higher net finance expenses mainly due to higher dividends received from associates in the same quarter last year.
Its operating revenue was up 6 per cent to $2.3 billion while earnings before tax increased 3.7 per cent to $652 million.
Its mobile service revenue grew 4.3 per cent to $1.2 billion driven by mobile handset customer growth, continued take up of its My Plan Plus and 12 per cent increase in data revenues.
“Optus’ second consecutive quarter of revenue and mobile handset customer growth reflects the strength of our core business,” Optus CEO, Allen Lew said. “Our strategy to achieve long-term sustainable growth by continual customer service improvements and delivering innovative products and services such as data sharing and Cash by Optus is on track.”
During the quarter, Optus added 100,000 mobile handset customers with growth across both post-paid and pre-paid segments.
The telco has expanded its national 4G footprint to 80 per cent as January 31. It added 435,000 4G mobile customers, bringing its 4G customer base to 3.18 million.
“The release of 700 MHz spectrum on January 1 is a major milestone in our network expansion strategy, taking us one step closer to our goal to deliver Optus’ superfast 4G Plus network to 90 per cent of Australians by April,” Lew said.
