Singapore’s second largest operator StarHub expanded its LTE base over the past year 29 per cent to more than 900,000, or 42 per cent of its total subscribers – up from 32 per cent, according to GSMA Intelligence.

The operator, with a 27 per cent market share, saw no growth in its total subscribers, which remained at about 2.18 million, but postpaid accounted for a higher percentage of the total (61 per cent vs 57 per cent) after its prepaid base dropped 7.8 per cent year-on-year to 857,000.

Postpaid ARPU rose 4.4 per cent to SGD71 ($51), while prepaid ARPU was stable at SGD18 from Q3 2014.

StarHub saw strong equipment sales in Q3, growing 14.4 per cent year-on-year to SGD44.9 million ($32.1 million) on the back of the iPhone 6s launch.

Total service revenue increased 1 per cent to SGD558.2 million, with mobile service revenue flat at SGD310.7 million.

Pay-TV turnover was down slightly, but fixed and broadband services each increased about 4 per cent.

Overall revenue rose 1.9 per cent to SGD603.1 million year-on-year. Net profit grew 21.5 per cent to SGD118.7 million.

EBITDA increased 4.3 per cent to SGD199.1 million and its EBITDA margin strengthened 1.2 points 35.7 per cent.

Operating expenses in Q3 fell 0.5 per cent to SGD483.9 million, and for the nine-month period increased 5 per cent to SGD1.49 billion. Capex for the first nine months was down 4.2 per cent to SGD226 million.

Its outlook for the full year is flat service revenue and an EBITDA margin of 32 per cent.