Competition heats up

CGS-CIMB Research reiterated its “neutral” call on the telco sector; and said its top pick is TM (“add” call with target price of RM7.50).

PETALING JAYA: The telecommunications sector is seeing tight competition in the mobile postpaid arena, according to CGS-CIMB Research.

The research unit pointed out that besides the already rich quotas, telecommunications companies are engaged in limited-time mid-end sub-acquisition and retention initiatives in September and November.

Maxis Bhd extended its RM50 per month rebates (over four months) for Postpaid 98-188 online sign-ups, and RM20 per month rebates (over five months) for Hotlink Postpaid 60 sign-ups, till end-December, as well as removed the base/YouTube quota split for the latter.

In a similar vein, Celcom is offering RM30 to RM200 rebates over six months for online sign-ups/upgrades of its MEGA/XP Lite L plans.

Digi.Com Bhd is offering 10GB per month additional bonus quota to Postpaid 60-120 and Family 30/45 signups with a 12-month contract.

Maxis Bhd extended its RM50 per month rebates (over four months) for Postpaid 98-188 online sign-ups, and RM20 per month rebates (over five months) for Hotlink Postpaid 60 sign-ups, till end-December, as well as removed the base/YouTube quota split for the latter.

Positively, U Mobile ended its double hotspot quota offer (available since Jan 13) for its unlimited plans.

As for the mobile prepaid arena, CGS-CIMB Research also said overall competition remained stiff as the aggressive offers introduced in the preceding three months were still on the market.

“However, we did see efforts to drive average revenue per user higher,” said the research unit.

Meanwhile, the third quarter of 2021 (Q3’21) saw mobile and fixed revenues rose a decent 2% and 4% respectively year-on-year’(y-o-y).

Mobile industry service revenue in Q3’21 rose 1.1% quarter-on-quarter (1.6% higher y-o-y) mainly due to new subs/plan upgrades arising from the Jaringan Prihatin programme.

Maxis’s revenue market share improved by 0.3% percentage point quarter-on-quarter, while Celcom’s stabilised after rising for four straight quarters.

In the fixed-line business, Telekom Malaysia Bhd’s (TM) revenue rose a decent 1.5% quarter-on-quarter (4.2% y-o-y), with a fifth consecutive quarter of record Unifi net adds.

CGS-CIMB Research reiterated its “neutral” call on the telco sector; and said its top pick is TM (“add” call with target price of RM7.50).

“We prefer the fixed to mobile segment, due to the former’s better revenue growth prospects and benign competition,” said the research unit.