KUALA LUMPUR (Nov 27): Celcom Axiata Bhd regained its second place in service revenue market share among the top three telecommunication companies in the country in the third quarter of this year as its service revenue grew 1.9% quarter-on-quarter (q-o-q) to RM1.52 billion. Celcom Axiata's total revenue also increased 2.1% q-o-q to RM1.66 billion.

According to Celcom chief executive officer Michael Kuehner, the exceptionally strong performance in its prepaid segment has helped to drive its growth for the quarter.

"Our service revenue has grown by 1.9% and increased our market share for the second quarter in a row. This time, we have an [exceptionally] strong performance in the prepaid segment," Kuehner said during a media briefing today.

The data contribution of the group also saw a strong improvement in the third quarter as data revenue grew over 25% year-on-year to RM730 million, contributing 44% to the company's total revenue.

Celcom deputy CEO Azwan Khan Osman Khan pointed out that the strong data usage among its users is reflected by the increase of 16.1% q-o-q in data consumption to 7.2GB per month per active data user from 6.2GB previously.

Both the postpaid and prepaid segments have seen an increase in average revenue per user (ARPU) by RM2 from second quarter to RM84 and RM33 respectively in the third quarter.

"Celcom recorded a robust prepaid performance with a 3.7% increase in its revenue, driven by positive traction from data, leading to an improvement in prepaid ARPU of RM2 to RM33, for the quarter," he said.

While the postpaid segment has seen an increase in its ARPU, the postpaid revenue moderated to RM596 million — down 1% — in the current quarter from RM602 million in the second quarter.

Celcom chief financial officer Jennifer Wong highlighted that the group is on track to meet the capital expenditure (capex) target of about RM1.3 billion this year.

"Capital investment is expected to pick up in the fourth quarter and should meet our guidance for the year. As of the third quarter, the group has utilised about RM670 million for its capex investment," Wong added.

Other than the improved financial performance, Kuehner pointed to Celcom's recent win of the Best Consumer Satisfaction award from the Malaysian Communication and Multimedia Commission as evidence of the company's commitment to excellence in customer service.

"We have been persistent in our focus to improve our customers' digital experience, as part of our commitment to deliver an awesome customer experience. One such initiative was to digitise customer service — to serve our customers better, end-to-end. We introduced real-time internal platforms for customer feedback and social listening and through these, we witnessed positive growth in reach and engagement," he added.

Celcom will also be improving the customer experience in Sabah and Sarawak with the introduction of new high-speed fibre internet connected services, namely the Celcom Home Fibre & Celcom Business Fibre, to provide 10 times faster unlimited internet download speeds of up to 100Mbps, he noted.

Axiata Group Bhd, which owns Celcom, saw its shares trade unchanged at RM5.31 as at 3.13pm with about 1.1 million shares changing hands in the open market, giving it a market capitalisation of RM48 billion.