Subscriber growth fuels Optus profit - News - Business

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This story was printed from ZDNet Australia.
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Subscriber growth fuels Optus profit

By Staff writers, ZDNet Australia
November 06, 2003
URL: http://www.zdnet.com.au/news/business/soa/Subscriber-growth-fuels-Optus-profit/0,139023166,120280616,00.htm

Strong growth in the number of Internet and mobile phone customers has helped push SingTel Optus to a strong result in its latest quarterly and half-yearly report.

Optus Mobile reports that total customer numbers grew by 17 percent in the quarter ended 30 September to more than 5 million subscribers. However, total mobile revenue grew by 21 percent and service revenues grew by 19 percent. "The results reflect mobile's successful focus on higher value customers and reductions in unit subscriber acquisition and retention costs," stated Optus owner SingTel in its quarterly results.

The Optus Consumer and Multimedia division also saw growth, increasing its total number of Internet users to 646,000, a 27 percent increase compared to the same quarter last year. Broadband subscribers increased by 62 percent over the same period.

Overall, Optus reported a AU$90 million profit for the second quarter, bringing the results for the first half of the year to AU$190 million, a turn-around of AU$266 million on the first half of 2002.

Total revenue grew by 18 percent to AU$1.57 billion in the quarter.

"These results reflect consistent performance over 18 months and this is the seventh successive quarter of double digit revenue growth for Optus," said Optus' chief executive, Chris Anderson. "We are growing at a significantly greater rate than the market and our cash flow continues to improve."