Optus mobile growth slows

Stuart Corner
Tuesday, 08 May 2007 13:01

IT Industry - Deals

Optus added just 60,000 new mobile customers in the quarter to 31 March, taking its total to 6.74 million, 445,000 of which were on its 3G network.

The numbers were released by parent SingTel ahead of the release of its full year results on 9 May. They show Optus faring poorly against Telstra which reported 416,000 3G subscribers on Next G at the beginning of February, just four months after launch. However this result was boosted by those migrating from CDMA in the knowledge that it will soon be shut down.

In its announcement, SingTel claimed that Optus had "successfully defended its market position in Australia [adding] 60,000 customers for the quarter, increasing its mobile customer base to 6.74 million." In the year to 31 March, Optus added 250,000 subscribers.

Vodafone Australia announced in January that it had added 109,000 net customers for the three months ending December 31,
2006 (excluding MVNO customers). 3G customer numbers stood at 450,000 and total subscriber numbers at 3.58 million.

Telstra, in its results for the half year to 30 December, claimed to have added 12 and 13 times as many postpaid SIOs in the second quarter as Vodafone and Optus respectively, taking its total subscriber numbers to 8.89 million, up 363,000 in the half.

At Hutchison's AGM this week CEO,Nigel Dews, said the company had 1.3 million subscribers (all on 3G) and had added 590,000 in calendar 2006. Hutchison has been operating 3G services longer than any other carrier in Australia, it launched in April 2003.