Indonesia-based Indosat Ooredoo Hutchison registered growth in mobile revenue and ARPU in Q2, but higher costs led to a decline in profit.

In an earnings release, president director and CEO Vikram Sinha noted Indosat Ooredoo Hutchison is pushing ahead with its network integration, adding a move to multi-operator core technology is on target for completion at the end of the year.

The business was created by a merger of Ooredoo’s local business with Hutchison 3 Indonesia in January.

Net profit dropped to IDR3.1 trillion ($208.7 million) from IDR5.2 trillion a year earlier, due to a 61.2 per cent jump in opex and a reversed deferred tax impairment charge of IDR167 billion.

Revenue increased 53.9 per cent to IDR11.7 trillion. With its expanded user base, mobile revenue rose 59.4 per cent to IDR10.2 trillion and blended ARPU 2.9 per cent to IDR35,000.

The business also recorded a decline in profit during Q1.

The operator closed June with 96.2 million subscribers, up from 60.3 million, with 4G users increasing 75 per cent to 70 million.

H1 capex rose 31.5 per cent to IDR3.9 trillion, with the number of LTE base stations increasing by 55,000 to 124,000.

Capex for the full year was set at IDR10 trillion.