Chart of the Day: Check out which amongst the telcos had broadband trouble

The other two maintained stable average revenue per user.

The residential broadband market remains stable as Singtel and M1 added a total of 11,000 new customers between 3Q16 and 4Q16, said a report by OCBC Investment Research.

However, Starhub’s broadband subscriber base fell by 2,000 during the same period. As at end-4Q16, total broadband subscriber base of the three telcos was 1.24m subscribers, which represent around 92.7% of the overall Singapore broadband market. Whilst Starhub’s subscriber base fell, retaining the higher value customers helped keep its ARPU stable.

It was actually M1 which saw a drop in ARPU. OCBC Investment Research said the 5.7% quarter-on-quarter drop in ARPU was a key reason for the 5.3% increase in subscriber base. Singtel recorded stronger broadband revenue as subscriber base grew 0.5% qoq on the back of higher ARPU.

Here’s more from OCBC Investment Research:

All said, looking ahead, we expect competition within Singapore’s broadband industry to intensify with the entry of TPG. Leveraging on Singapore’s Next Generation Nationwide Broadband Network (NGNBN), we expect TPG to launch fibre broadband services even before the launch of mobile services, possibly by CY17.

By establishing a presence in the broadband market before mobile services launch, we believe TPG will be able to offer better value proposition by having bundling option (mobile + broadband), which is similar to M1’s strategy. Note that TPG is already an established fixed service provider and will likely be able to keep its cost structure lean to compete effectively.

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