Singapore's M1 has revealed it plans to launch voice calls over its LTE network in the next few months, and plans to upgrade the network to 300Mbps LTE-Advanced by the end of the year.
In a statement announcing the operator's first-quarter results, M1 CEO Karen Kooi said the company will be investing S$120 million ($95.8 million) to improve the performance of its networks including its LTE network and to improve the customer experience.
“Our 4G network is now capable of supporting speeds of up to 150 Mbps nationwide. This will be further upgraded to 300 Mbps when LTE-Advanced is implemented by the end of this year,” she said.
During the first quarter, M1 grew its net profit by 4.4% to S$43 million ($34.3 million), on the back of 2.1% higher revenue of S$203.9 million. Non-voice revenue increased 5.6 percentage points to 45.1% of service revenue.
Mobile revenues increased 4.8% to S$163.8 million. The company's mobile customer base increased 2.9% year-on-year to 2.1 million, while churn was stable at 1.1%. The company estimates that its mobile market share was 24.9% during the quarter.
Fixed service revenue meanwhile jumped 12.4% to S16.1 million. M1 added 5,000 fiber subscribers to take its total base to 90,000
Based on the current economic outlook, M1 said it expects moderate growth in post-tax profit for the full year.