AIS, the largest mobile operator in Thailand, benefitted from continued mobile subscriber growth and rising ARPU in the final quarter of 2019, which translated to strong financials.

Net profit in Q4 rose 2.8 per cent year-on-year to THB7.03 billion ($225 million), which the company attributed to service revenue growth and cost saving from a dispute settlement with state-owned TOT.

Overall revenue increased 11 per cent to THB49.5 billion, driven by a 4.1 per cent rise in mobile to THB32.7 billion, and a 36 per cent jump in device and SIM sales to THB10.4 billion.

In a statement, the operator said price competition weakened from 2018 when unlimited data plans were offered on a broad basis. As a result of a continued shift of customers from prepaid to post-paid plans, average monthly 4G data consumption in 2019 rose 17 per cent to 12.7GB per user.

Net subscriber additions of 850,000 in 2019, took its total to 42 million. Its prepaid base was stable at 32.9 million while post-paid subs grew 11 per cent as a result of promotional handset discounts.

LTE penetration hit 71 per cent, up from 59 per cent at end-2018. Blended ARPU of THB260 was up 2 per cent.

Capex fell 5.5 per cent to THB19.1 billion, which the operator stated was a result of a new tower leasing contract with TOT.