Singapore’s second largest operator StarHub reported its Q2 net profit rose 5 per cent to SGD99 million ($72.3 million), but service revenue was up just 1 per cent and mobile revenue was flat during the quarter.

Overall revenue in Q2 increased 2 per cent to SGD589 million, while service revenue hit SGD554 million.

Mobile revenue was almost flat at SGD310.8 million compared to the same period a year ago. Postpaid revenue grew slightly year-on-year but was offset by a lower contribution from prepaid services, the company said. Sales of equipment, helped by the continuing popularity of the iPhone 6, surged 42.6 per cent to SGD35.2 million.

Mobile accounted for 52.7 per cent of revenue, down from 53.8 per cent in Q2 2014.

Its mobile customer base has also fallen slightly in the twelve months, from 2.29 million in Q2 2014 to 2.16 million in Q2 2015.

Its postpaid customer base grew by 70,000 year-on-year and represented 61 per cent of its 2.16 million subscribers. Both postpaid and prepaid ARPU increased by SGD2 to SGD69 and SGD18 respectively.

Beyond mobile
StarHub said that 60 per cent of households now subscribe to two or more services and triple-service households grew 5 per cent to 246,000 from a year ago.

Broadband revenue fell 3.9 per cent to SGD49 million compared to a year ago, mainly due to price competition, which lowered subscription revenue from both re-contracting and new customers. ARPU was SGD33. Its residential broadband customer base increased by 19,000 year-on-year to 475,000 households.

Pay-TV revenue was down 0.6 per cent to SGD97.8 million. Its customer base grew by 10,000 to 545,000 households, and the churn rate remained at 0.7 per cent. ARPU was at SGD51.

Fixed network revenue increased 5 per cent to SGD96.7 million.

Overall operating expenses were down slightly to SGD248 million. Capex dropped 34 per cent to SGD62 million compared to the same quarter last year and on a half-year basis was 13 per cent of total revenue.

Its EBITDA rose 4 per cent to SGD195 million, while its EBITDA margin increased 1.1 points to 35.1 per cent.

For the full year, the operator expects service revenue to grow in the low single-digit range and its EBITDA margin to be about 32 per cent on service revenue.