TPG and its subsidiary iiNet added 112,000 NBN customers in the first half of FY17, the telco reported today.
In total, as of the end of January, the company had 1.91 million broadband subscribers: 921,000 TPG customers and 990,000 iiNet customers (iiNet in the second half of FY16 had registered a dip in broadband subscribers from 989,000 in the first half to 983,000). Some 388,000 of those were customers with National Broadband Network connections.
Figures published by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission earlier this year revealed that at the end of 2016 TPG had captured just over a quarter of the NBN market.
TPG also had 24,000 customers with services on its own fibre to the basement (FTTB) infrastructure as of the end of January, the company said. FTTB and NBN subscriber growth helped drive 8 per cent EBITDA growth for TPG’s consumer division during the half.
The company also registered EBITDA growth across its corporate division and iiNet.
Overall, the company reported underlying net profit after tax of $207.5 million — up 28 per cent on the prior comparative period. Underlying EBITDA grew 13 per cent to $417.6 million.
Reported EBITDA was $473.4 million (up 8 per cent) and NPAT was $224 million (up 11 per cent).
During the half, TPG successfully picked up spectrum in Singapore in an auction conducted by that nation’s Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA).
The island’s New Entrant Spectrum Auction was open parties that did not operate a nationwide mobile network in Singapore.
TPG shelled out around $99 million for all of the spectrum on offer: Two lots of 2x5MHz in the 900MHz band and eight lots of 5MHz in the 2.3GHz band. The company said that in the three months since the auction it has “made a strong start to its mobile network rollout” in Singapore.
(TPG is also keen to add to its Australian spectrum holdings.)
The telco reported capex of $108 million in Singapore during the half and $222.2 million for its Australian business. The Australian capex related to the purchase of additional international capacity as well as its roll out of fibre to Vodafone mobile sites under a deal announced in 2015. The Vodafone fibre contract is running to schedule and within budget, TPG said.