StarHub blames slow take-up of NGNBN on operational issues
By Ryan Huang | Posted: 09 November 2011 2131 hrs
SINGAPORE: StarHub said the take-up of high speed fibre broadband
by corporate customers is being hampered by operational
issues.
This includes disputes over the laying of cables in
buildings.
The telco had hoped the rollout of the Next Generation Nationwide
Broadband Network (NGNBN) would help it gain market share on its
rivals Singapore Telecommunication and M1.
"The actual rollout is actually more or less along the time frame
we thought; it's the provisioning levels that is a bit lower than
we expected, and the residential side we see that improving quite a
bit, but on the corporate side we still have a number of issues
which we're working out with all the parties involved," said Neil
Montefiore, StarHub's CEO.
StarHub hopes to resolve the issue by the end of the year.
The telco was responding to questions during its results briefing
on Wednesday.
For the third quarter, StarHub booked an 8 per cent drop in net
profit from a year ago to S$75.8 million.
It said earnings were hurt by increasing equipment costs and
smartphone subsidies.
Sales rose 4 per cent to S$572 million. EBITDA margins for Q3 were
down from 32.3 per cent to 30.8 per cent on-year.
StarHub expects more pressure on margins in the final quarter with
the recent introduction of new smartphones and stiffer
competition.
"We might expect a little bit more pressure in the next couple of
months of this year. The iPhone 4S is being received very well in
Singapore. It's selling quite actively," said the StarHub
CEO.
- CNA /ls