No hope in sight for M1 as cheap promos bite

Mobile revenue is under threat.

Singapore’s smallest telco will endure weaker mobile revenue as operators slash prices on back of looming competition.

According to a report by DBS, M1’s mobile service revenue will experience some pressure in FY16 and FY17 due to recent new product launches and promos.

In March, M1 added two new entry-level sim-only postpaid plans at $15/month and $20/month, and raised the data quota on all of its existing sim-only plans by 1Gb.

M1 also launched an upsized data promotion, which offers subscribers an extra 2-12Gb of data for $5.90/month.

Although the new promos help M1 target lower market segments and position itself against the potential entry of a fourth telco, CIMB warned that M1 will still be severely impacted by the advent of a new operator.

“We expect M1’s mobile service revenue to fall by 11.2% between 2017 and 2020 as competition intensifies once the potential fourth mobile player launches its service in early-2018,” CIMB said.