Celcom 4G Coverage Hits 94% Adds 1 Million New Subscribers

Celcom Axiata Berhad has enhanced its network coverage with a total of RM825million Capex allocated for the purpose this year. The Capex was used to build 250 new network sites and enhance 8000 existing sites.

This resulted in the telecommunication operator gaining positively in terms of subscriber acquisition with over 1 million joining the operator to date. The investment into network has rapidly increased 4G LTE population coverage especially in Sabah, Pahang, Terengganu, Sarawak, Negeri Sembilan, and Kedah, over the past 9 months.

As of now, the operator has achieved an average of more than 94% LTE coverage nationwide with 9 states at 98% pop coverage or higher. Nationwide improvement works involved, more than 1800 sites in Sabah and Sarawak which saw an increased 4G LTE pop coverage by 6pp and 1.9pp, respectively.

The improvements address the rapid increase in data traffic that recorded more than 54.3% YoY growth with 581.9 million GB compared to 377.2 million GB in 3Q20. Data usage per month per user increased by 37.3% YoY with 25.4 GB per month per user as compared to 18.5GB per month per user a year earlier. Celcom also increased overall network capacity to 1.6Tbps compared to 810Gbps in January 2020. Celcom’s network currently caters over 14 million users, including Mobile Virtual Network Operators (MVNO) users.

For its third quarter, Celcom continued its growth momentum with net additions of 157k subscribers. Prepaid subscriber base saw a +14.4% YoY subscriber growth primarily from affordable prepaid plans with a resilient ARPU of RM30. Postpaid segment recorded subscriber growth for five consecutive quarters with a +6.7% YoY increase in customer base and a sustained ARPU of RM82, supported by new products.

Celcom also saw its EBITDA and PATAMI grew faster than top line from cost management initiatives. Excluding one-off Employee Restructuring Programme impact in YTD20, YTD EBITDA increased by RM240 mil (+7.3%) as a result of better credit management and cost optimisation efforts. YTD PATAMI also increased RM33 mil (+6.9%) from accelerated depreciation and lower net finance costs.

Commenting on the performance, CEO Datuk Idham Nawawi said “our customers enjoy one of the highest throughputs with our network. The network improvements also include the cessation of 3G services which will enable us to allocate more network and spectrum resources to 4G LTE, making our network ready for 5G.

Celcom embarked on an operational cost management process which has resulted in positive cost savings while maintaining profitability, however the excersie do not affect customers, but enable the operator to offer more innovative products and services at affordable prices, especially in the Enterprise market.

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