Malaysia's Maxis has reported a 2.5% increase in net profit for the March quarter, even as revenue fell due to declines in voice and SMS revenue.
The operator reported a profit of 488 million ringgit ($150.1 million), from 8.9% lower revenue of 2.12 billion ringgit.
As with many operators worldwide, Maxis was hit by a decline in core voice and messaging revenue during the quarter.
The company said total revenue was also impacted by the intentional elimination or reduction of “non-sustainable revenue from pay per use charges related to data roaming and prepaid data.”
Mobile data revenue by contrast grew a strong 12.4% to 524 million ringgit, representing 27% of total mobile revenue.
The company invested $118 million in network capex during the first quarter to improve capacity and quality over its mobile networks and expand its 4G coverage.
“Q1 was as expected a quarter with full operational focus on our transformation initiatives that will keep us busy throughout 2014,” Maxis CEO Morten Lundal said. “We are satisfied that we have improved profitability further in Q1, but what we really are focused on is to improve our capabilities further.”
For the full year, Maxis is expecting revenue to be largely flat compared to 2013, due to its transformation efforts and a maturing Malaysian mobile market.