M1's tiered plan subscribers climbed to 20%

The 4G adoption starts to really kick in.

According to CIMB, the main highlights of M1's 1Q13 results are the following:

1) service revenues rose 4.1% yoy and 2.8% qoq on the back of a higher postpaid customer base and rising take-up of tiered data plans;

2) however, unadjusted mobile postpaid ARPUs dipped 3.5% yoy and 1.6% qoq mainly due to lower roaming revenues; 3) prepaid revenues rose 7.6% yoy and 8.6% qoq thanks to the recognition of expired credits;

4) fibre users rose 15% but ARPUs declined 3.4% qoq as new users took up lower-end plans and 5) subscriber acquisition costs (SAC) fell 23.7% yoy and 12.1% qoq thanks to a higher mix of Android handsets. As expected, no dividends were declared in 1Q13.

20% of M1’s postpaid customers are now on tiered plans, up from 14% as at end-12/in 4Q12. 9% of its tiered plan customers have exceeded their data quotas and 11% have upgraded to a higher-tiered plan in 1Q13.

We forecast that 35%, 60%, and 85% of M1’s postpaid base will adopt tiered plans by FY13, FY14 and FY15. Every additional subscriber on a tiered plan contributes S$3/month to its PBT.