KUALA LUMPUR: Celcom Axiata Bhd has performed better than the industry in its quarter-on-quarter service revenue despite the increasingly saturated market.
The telecommunications company registered 1.4 per cent increase in service revenue to RM1.495 billion in the second quarter ended June 30, while the industry shrunk 0.2 per cent.
Service revenue only focuses on telecommunication-related sales, excluding device sales.
In the quarter, Celcom's earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation grew 7.2 per cent to RM630 million from RM587 million last year while its total revenue increased 0.7 per cent to RM1.621 billion.
Chief executive officer Michael Kuehner said the improved performance in the second quarter is due to improved postpaid revenue and more stabilised cost structure.
He said it also continuously strengthened its sales and distribution system throughout the quarter to improve its base of active dealership.
"We had also initiated the dealer digitisation programme which not only improve the availability overall but also enabled a better dealer experience in terms of acquisition and mobile internet provisioning at retail outlets," he told reporters here.
He added, the company is optimistic that it could regain some of the market share and register some growth for the rest of the year amid industry challenges.
In the second half of the year, Michael said the company expects to spend around RM1.1 billion in capital expenditure for ongoing network expansion.
The company has spent a total of RM400 million for spectrum refarming in the first half of the year, he added.
Celcom's LTE population coverage has reached 77 per cent at the end of the second quarter.