Singapore Telecommunications (SingTel) announced Thursday strong growth in profit for the fiscal year that ended March 31, coming mainly from strong contributions from its investments in service providers in India and Indonesia.

The company’s profit for the year was S$4.2 billion (US$2.6 billion as of the last day of the period reported), up 27 percent from profit of S$3.3 billion in the previous year. SingTel’s revenue also grew 4.1 percent to S$13 billion from S$12.6 billion in the previous year.

SingTel’s mobile communications revenue grew by 6.4 percent to S$219 million in the fourth quarter. The company added 40,000 subscribers in the quarter, twice the number it added in the third quarter, the company said. As of March 31, the company had 1.7 million mobile subscribers, including 130,000 subscribers for its third-generation service.

The company’s revenue from broadband services increased by 14 percent to S$61 million in the fourth quarter, with the total number of broadband lines at 352,000 by March 31.

Higher broadband use, however, had its impact on national telephony revenues. Dial-up Internet traffic dropped as customers shifted to broadband. Revenue from national telephony fell 4.9 percent to S$119 million in the fourth quarter. Revenue from international telephony also fell 7.1 percent to S$147 million as average collection rates declined, partially offset by a 15 percent increase in traffic, the company said.

-John Ribeiro, IDG News Service

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