Singapore's M1 has reported a 6.1% increase in 1H13 profit to S$80.2 million ($63.5 million), on the back of gains in mobile data revenue.
The company's revenue grew 6.5% year-on-year to S$406.9 million. Mobile revenue grew 7.9% to S$318.7 million, with postpaid revenue was up 5.7% to S275.6 million.
Non-voice revenue increased to a strong 40.4% of service revenue, up 3.3 percentage points year-on-year, as data usage on smartphones continued to grow. M1 said smartphone customers now account for 80% of its postpaid customer base.
But handset sales for 1H13 fell 28.5% year-on-year due to lower sales volumes.
M1's mobile customer base grew to 2.1 million by the end of the period, giving it a market share of around 25.4%.
International call services revenue meanwhile declined 1.5% to S$58.6 million, but was up 3.4% year-on-year for the second quarter.
Based on the results M1 has estimated that, barring unforeseen circumstances, it will achieve “moderate” profit growth for 2013.
“With today’s high smartphone penetration, broadband data traffic is shifting from data cards to smartphones. Faster networks and devices will continue to drive growth in data usage, and M1 is well-positioned to capture this growth,” M1 CEO Karen Kooi said.