SINGAPORE (Jan 18): M1 has recorded a 1.5% increase in FY2015 earnings to $178.5 million from a year ago.

Operating revenue for the 12 months ended December increased 7.5% to $1.16 billion on higher handset sales.

Service revenue decreased 1.1% to $822.3 million, due to lower international call services revenue.

Mobile data usage continued to grow, with revenue from mobile data for FY2015 increasing 10.7 percentage points to 46.3% of service revenue.

Fixed services revenue for the period grew 21.7% to $85.9 million and now accounts for 10.4% of service revenue. The growth was mainly driven by a larger residential customer base and new contracts secured in the corporate segment.

As at end 2015, total customer base was 2.06 million. Postpaid customer base increased 46,000 to 1.2 million while prepaid customer base grew 30,000 to 733,000. During the year, its fibre customer base grew 25,000 to 128,000.

Looking ahead, M1 says it expects the entry of content providers such as Netflix and Viu to “effectively unbundle content from access” and further level the playing field.

“Products and services are increasingly incorporating embedded sensors and connectivity. To capitalise on these opportunities, we will continue to develop our capability in data analytics with real-time feedback and leverage our M2M connect platform to deliver smart solutions for our customers,” says M1 CEO Karen Kooi.

M1 has recommended a final dividend of 8.3 cents per share, taking full year payout to a total of 15.3 cents per share.

Shares in M1 closed 0.38% higher on Monday at $2.61.