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Optus is calling for intervention by the competition watchdog after losing ground to Telstra in its most recent quarter, ended June 30, and seeing its revenues and net profit decline.
The SingTel subsidiary wants the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission to run its beady over telco pricing, following revelations that Telstra had invested more than $1 billion in a two-year price war to help it gain more than three million mobile customers over that period.
Chief executive Paul O’Sullivan also wants “an open access market for content, where all the carriers are able to access content at an equivalent price from a wholesale provider.”
Optus yesterday reported a disappointing quarter, with revenues down 3.2 percent to $2.2 billion, and net profit down 3.9 percent at $155 million, compared with $161 million in the same quarter last year.
O’Sullivan claimed the poor results were indicative of conditions industry-wide, claiming the days of automatic growth for mobile players were over. “The actual numbers for all three players show very clearly revenue for the first time ever maybe has actually gone negative in the industry, to minus 2.5-3 per cent in terms of negative growth,” he told a media and analyst briefing.
He called on the ACCC to provide a “level playing field” for telcos ahead of the roll-out of the National Broadband Network. He also warned: “It’s important that those with deeper pockets” – presumably a reference to the Telstra/Foxtel combo – “don’t get a chance to lock up content.”
The Optus result comes just one week after Telstra reported annual results that saw its net profit jump 5.4 percent or $174 million to $3.42 billion; while revenue increased 1.1 percent to $25.36 billion.
Telstra added 1.6 million domestic mobile customers over the year to give it a total of 13.8 million. Optus says it has 9.51 million, up 4.6pc, or about 416,000 newcomers.
Rubbing salt into Optus’s wounds, Telstra CEO David Thodey revealed that the Big T has built more than 1000 4G base stations across major population centres and since September has signed up 375,000 4G customers.
Its 4G service, unveiled 10 months ago, now operates in all capitals and 30 regional centres, offering services to a claimed 40 percent of the Australian population.
Optus has only recently announced plans for a LTE 4G service initially limited to Perth and Sydney (CDN, Aug. 1) and so far just servicing business customers. But it says the LTE rollout and upgrading of 1000 3G mobile tower sites since September last year is providing customers with greater depth of signals in more places, including better indoor coverage.
