StarHub Q1 profit falls 12% on more handset subsidies

Singapore

STRONG demand for iPhones that spilled over from end-2014 into the usually quieter first quarter prompted StarHub to give out more handset subsidies in order to woo customers and thus dragged down earnings for the period, the telecommunications group said in a results briefing over the phone on Friday.

StarHub was aggressively courting customers because it prefers to "take customers in earlier" and not because of upcoming competition from a possible fourth telco in Singapore, chief executive Tan Tong Hai said, adding that it has no plans for now to introduce an unlimited data bundle. "If you're going to invest a lot in data and want to offer unlimited data at low rates, then it is going to be very challenging," he added.