Incumbent Thai mobile operator AIS has reported a strong 42% increase in Q1 profit, due partly to growing data revenue.
The company posted a record profit of 8.9 billion baht ($287.4 million) for the quarter, from 13% higher revenue of 35.17 billion baht.
Non-voice revenue grew 32% year-on-year to 5.97 billion baht, while voice revenue grew just 7.5% year-on-year and slightly declined quarter-on-quarter.
AIS also revealed that data usage among its subscribers was up 170% year-on-year. Total data users grew to 10.5 million, with a fifth of these using AIS' 3G service on the 900-MHz band.
Operating data shows that non-voice services accounted for 22.5% of AIS' service revenue for the quarter, up from 18.9% a year earlier. The contribution of basic voice services fell to 70.3% from 73.2% over the same period.
AIS' total subscriber base grew to 34 million during the quarter. The company registered net additions of around 677,000 customers, but this was down both sequentially and year-on-year.
Postpaid ARPU for the quarter was 632 baht, while prepaid ARPU was 213 baht.
AIS maintained its guidance for the full year, including a 5-6% increase in service revenue, 25% growth in non-voice revenue, and ebitda margins of 44%.