Among SingTel’s eight markets, its Indian associate, Bharti, of which SingTel owns a 30.4% stake, posted the biggest customer jump at 52% year-on-year.

CORP TALK: Singapore Telecommunications Limited (SingTel) has released a report announcing the company’s increased and combined regional mobile customer base, which has totalled 249 million as of 31 March 2009.

From a base covering eight countries - Australia (Optus), Bangladesh (PBTL), India (Bharti), Indonesia (Telkomsel), Pakistan (Warid), the Philippines (Globe), Singapore (SingTel) and Thailand (AIS), the company’s regional customer base has grown 7.3%, or 17 million on a sequential quarterly basis. Click here to see a breakdown of the stakes SingTel currently has in the various companies across the six other markets besides Singapore and Australia.

Besides India, SingTel also reported that Telkomsel grew its mobile customer base by 41% or 20.8 million year-on-year. The past quarter alone, ending 31 March 2009, saw the Indonesian operator adding 6.8 million customers to its base, with a market share increase of 3% to 49%.

For Thailand and the Philippines, which are more mature markets to SingTel, Thailand’s AIS added 2.5 million mobile subscribers (a 10% increase) while Philippines’ Globe Telecom added 4.5 million (21% increase). According to SingTel, demand for 3G services is expected to remain strong, particularly in Singapore, where it added 405,000 new customers (16% more) from a year ago, bringing its mobile customer base to 2.98 million and a market share of 46.4% (a 3% year-on-year increase) as of 31 March 2009.