Celcom post’s Q2 revenue uptick of 1.9%

• Focus on profitable segments sees 2.9% QoQ postpaid & prepaid revenue growth
• 34% uptick YoY of data traffic, 265 million GB in 2Q19 with video key contributor

Celcom Axiata Bhd posted a 1.9% year to date (YTD) revenue growth for its post-paid and prepaid services in Q2 2019. 4G coverage of populated areas rose to 93% whilst 4G LTE-A coverage rose to 81% compared to 89% and 76% respectively in 2Q18.

To date, Celcom’s LTE network covers 10 states namely Penang, Selangor, Johor, Perak with a 96% population coverage, which includes more than 25 prime cities such as Klang Valley, Putrajaya, Georgetown, Ipoh, Johor Bahru and many more. Celcom has  over 11,000 sites nationwide which includes over 9,000 LTE sites delivering more data on a larger network capacity. Data usage saw a 39% YoY increase to an average 13.3GB per month per sub in 2Q19, resulting from users enjoying the best digital experience such as video streaming, social networking and mobile gaming.

Celcom’s focus towards profitable segments also led to a 2.9% QoQ revenue growth for its postpaid and prepaid services, amidst a competitive industry. Its focus on high-value customers contributed positively with a RM1 increase in postpaid Average Revenue Per User (ARPU) to RM85, and a prepaid ARPU increase by RM3 to RM37 as compared to the previous quarter. Together with Celcom’s cost discipline, as of 1H19, EBITDA was lifted by 4.7%, FCF by 5% and PATAMI by 11.7%.

Commenting on the 2Q19 performance, Idham Nawawi, its chief executive officer, said Celcom’s continuous focus on being the industry’s leading network provider resulted with positive performance growth and a continued delivery of the best value for customers.  

“Celcom continues to invest in deploying the latest end-to-end technology such as 4T4R multiple-input and multiple-output (MIMO), Carrier Aggregation, 256 Quadrature Amplitude Modulation (QAM) and many more at our LTE tower sites, leading to the delivery of the best internet connectivity and digital experiences.”

Idham also pointed to Celcom’s strong data performance. “Celcom also recorded a 34% increase YoY of data traffic with 265 million GB in 2Q19 with video services making up more than 50% of Celcom’s total customer data usage.” Idham pins this data rise on the improved experience Celcom customers enjoy on its strong network.

His confidence in Celcom’s network was reinforced when it was ranked No.1 for 4G availability and upload speed experience in Malaysia in Opensignal’s ‘Mobile Network Experience: Malaysia’ report*, April 2019, based on an independent analysis of mobile measurements recorded during the period of 1 Dec 2018 to 28 Feb 2019.

The report stated that Celcom recorded the winning score of 86.8% for 4G Availability nationwide and an Upload Speed Experience with an average connection of 6.3Mbps. Also included in the report was Celcom’s overall score for Video Experience at 61.2 points and for Download Speed Experience with an average connection of 14.7Mbps.

The better experience of its customers on its network also resulted in Celcom maintaining the highest Net Promoter Score with the highest satisfaction score within the industry. Celcom’s positive Net Promoter Scores reflect the excellence of the company’s network quality, coverage and customer service at all touch points. This includes Celcom’s digital usages and transactions which recorded a 32% increase with 1.547 million unique user logins on the Celcom Life app, and a 65% increase to 1.585 million online transactions, he added.

Moving forward:

Idham also emphasised that: “Celcom will further intensify its focus towards profitability and operational excellence with smart investments which includes our continuous pace on enhancing our network infrastructure at lower operational costs and exploring new areas for growth and innovation such as home and enterprise business segments.”

The mobile operator has also begun to explore collaborations with multiple technology partners and platform providers, both externally and internally, leading to the monetization of investments by delivering end-to-end Internet-of-Things (IoT) solutions for industries across key verticals in Malaysia, in preparation for the Fourth Industrial Revolution (IR4.0).

“Celcom’s continuous digital transformation journey will embark towards newer aspirations, new business models and work processes, collaborations and a new working culture that will drive a high performing culture in the organisation. We aim to be a company with 30-years’ experience but with a digital startup culture," he shares.

“Celcom will also continue its unwavering commitment towards our nation building objectives either in the form of grooming digital entrepreneurs, improving social welfare and contributing to rural digital development, ensuring no one is left behind in the digital era. Celcom continues to play a much bigger role beyond a profit-making organisation in Malaysia, as a responsible corporate citizen.

“Celcom will continue to stand alongside the nation in transforming its aspirations into reality, and we will be capitalising on these new technologies and services that are pivotal to our efforts in advancing digital societies and to serve our customers better, further supporting the development of the nation’s digital transformation and in-line with the government’s National Fiberisation and Connectivity Plan (NFCP) to accelerate the nation’s baseline of 98% broadband coverage in populated areas by 2023 with a minimum broadband speed of 30Mbps nationwide,” Idham shared.