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
does NGNBN mean we have to pay even more to upgrade?