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The performance of Mobile pushed Optus further towards being a mobile dominated company. Mobile service revenue rose 10 percent year-on-year while mobile EBITDA grew 8.1 percent to $374m. Service revenue grew 10 percent. For the quarter Mobile accounted for 64.7 percent of total revenue, up from 63.1 percent in the June quarter. Mobile EBITDA at 67.2 percent was slightly down on last quarter's 68 percent.
Optus added 189,000 new mobile customers in the quarter, bringing half-year net additions to 380,000. Of the 189,000 143,000 were post paid. Postpaid accounted for 4.47 million at 30 September 2010, up 15 percent from a year ago. A total of 91 percent of new and recontracted postpaid customers chose capped plans this quarter. Approximately 65 percent of the total Optus postpaid mobile base were on capped plans as at 30 September 2010, up from 59 percent a year ago6.
Optus said the increased mix of postpaid subscribers and acquisition of higher value customers drove blended ARPU growth of 1.7 percent to $48. Excluding wireless broadband, postpaid ARPU grew 4.7 percent year-on-year. SMS and other data revenue were at 40 percent of ARPU, up from 35 percent a year ago with increased data usage and higher penetration of wireless data products.
The proportion of non-SMS data revenue (including premium content SMS) grew to 18 percent of ARPU in the current quarter, compared to 12 percent a year ago. The number of 3G subscribers increased to 4.54 million, an 8.8 percent increase from a quarter ago. This included a base of 1.10 million wireless broadband subscribers.
Mobile accounted for 58 percent ($140m) of total capex, up from 45 percent a year ago. Optus said this expenditure was largely incurred "to increase speed, capacity and coverage of the Open Network [Optus new name for its mobile network] to support the growing demand for voice and wireless broadband services."
In the Consumer Division, Optus said: "To support the growing demand for increased broadband speed, Optus has invested in the upgrade of Hybrid Fibre Coaxial (HFC) cable network to DOCSIS 3.0 technology, enabling customers to experience broadband speeds of up to 100 Mbps. From 2 August 2010, Optus launched its new premium speed packs to customers in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane, enabling them to enjoy high-speed content and services."
However the upgrade was not reflected in increased take-up of HFC services: Optus reported a slight fall from 425,000 at 30 June to 424,000 HFC broadband customers at 30 September.
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