Hong Kong mobile operator SmarTone has reported a 74% surge in net profit for the financial year ending in June, on the back of mobile revenue gains and a spike in handset sales.
Net profit grew to HK$935 million ($120.6 million), with total revenue increasing 41% to HK$18.66 billion, the company's annual results show.
Service revenue increased 3%, to HK$5.56 billion, with gains in local service revenue compensating for an ongoing decline in roaming revenue. Local mobile service revenue grew 4%.
Handset and accessory sales meanwhile climbed 67% to HK$13.06 billion, thanks to growth in both sales volumes and average unit prices.
SmarTone's Hong Kong customer base increased 4% to 1.96 million, with most of the gain coming from the operator's discount 3G speed-capped plan. Postpaid customers made up 69% of the company's Hong Kong customer base.
Average pospaid mobile churn improved to 0.9% from 1% in the prior financial year, while postpaid ARPU reached HK$294, up 3% when excluding the impact of its 3G speed-capped plan.
During the year, SmarTone completed a refarm of 900-MHz spectrum for 4G achieving full coverage of all MTR lines.
LTE-A using the 900-MHz and 1800-MHz bands has meanwhile been enabled on over 75% of the operator's LTE network, and the company has commenced a pilot of tri-band carrier aggregation.