KUALA LUMPUR: Maxis Bhd returned to positive growth of 0.6 per cent in its service revenue to RM2.05 billion for its second quarter ended June 30 against RM20.4 billion posted on the first quarter (Q1) 2014.
The company attributed mobile data as the main growth driver, with mobile Internet/value added services revenue growing 8.0 per cent from the previous quarter, partially mitigating lower voice and SMS usage.
This growth was achieved through initiatives undertaken in Q1 to eliminate pay per use charges and driven by higher smart-phone penetration, Maxis said.
Maxis also saw its worry free Internet proposition beginning to gain traction as well as steady contributions from the home and enterprise fixed segments.
For the quarter under review, Maxis said its earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) margin on service revenue improved by 0.5 percentage points to 53.5 per cent as compared to Q1 2014.
Overall, Maxis said EBITDA and profit after tax (PAT) on a normalised basis stood at RM1.07 billion and RM480 million respectively.
Maxis chief executive officer Morten Lundal said the company's second quarter results are expected as the company continue with its transformation initiatives.
"This quarter, we made a fundamental change in postpaid with our MaxisOne plan, by offering truly limitless voice and SMS as well as a generous and worry free data offering.
"With this change, the whole focus on how much you call or SMS are gone, a truly new experience for the Malaysian market specifically and also a first in Asia," he said, adding the company too made both prepaid and postpaid roaming a worry-free experience for customers.
He also noted that transport and core network was successfully expanded to support data traffic growth.
"Our 3G population coverage is expected to reach 88 per cent by end of 2014," he said, adding Maxis invested RM155 million capital expenditure in second quarter for network modernisation, capacity and quality improvements as well as focused 4G coverage expansion.
Based on this second quarter results, the company announced a second interim dividend of RM600 million or eight sen per share.