Indosat Swings Into Profit in Q1
Jakarta. Indonesia’s third-largest mobile phone operator Indosat Ooredoo saw a welcome bump in earnings in the first three months of this year, posting Rp 217.2 billion ($17 million) in net income, a huge improvement from a net loss of Rp 455,5 billion in the corresponding period last year.
Indosat’s total revenue also grew stronger, with the company booking Rp 6.8 trillion in revenue from January to March, compared to Rp 6.09 trillion in the same period last year.
Cellular revenues, which include income from data, voice, SMS and value-added services, grew 15.8 percent, a leading factor in the company's growth and contributing more revenue than other sources.
“After this outstanding achievement in 2015, we are very optimistic with our financial report for [the whole year of] 2016,” said Alexander Rusli, president director of Indosat Ooredoo on Tuesday (10/05).
Indosat said in an investor memo published on Tuesday that 29.2 million of its customers, representing 42.3 percent of the company's total customers by the end of the first quarter this year, connected to data services using smartphone.
The operator registered a total of 69.8 million subscribers by the end of March.
The company's growing customer base drove its year-on-year data revenue growth to 45.5 percent, as data services earned the company more revenue than voice services.
Less encouragingly, Indosat posted a 6.7 percent rise in total expenses to Rp 5.9 trillion, mostly driven by the higher cost of telecommunication services, higher salary costs and bigger marketing and administrative costs.
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