AIS disclosed its operating results for Q3 of 2022 with a total revenue of 46,234 million baht, an increase of 9.1% from last year. 5G users surged 41% from previous quarter and clocked at over 5.5 million subscribers. AIS Fibre maintained its strong growth reaching a customer base of 2.1 million subscribers. The business growth came from post-COVID recovery and the reopening of the country to foreign tourism. However, negative factors remain inherited in the continuous slowed down global economy. With the increased demand for digital infrastructure, AIS expanded the 5G network with the installations of network base stations to support both low and high bandwidth nationwide. AIS remains no. 1 in 5G coverage, reaching 85% of the nationwide population. This is in line with investment plans of 30,000 million baht to support increased demands in consumers and businesses, and leveling up Thailand’s digital infrastructure under the vision of Cognitive Tech-Co.
Somchai Lertsutiwong, CEO of Advanced Info Services Plc. (AIS) remarked, “In the previous quarter we faced many challenges; the increased energy prices which placed us to continue manage cost even more efficiently, the global economic which slowed down the business sector, and the consumer sentiments which have not yet returned to levels that can drive substantial business growth. However, we have seen positive signals from tourism, one of the country’s core revenue earners, as we see higher numillion bahters of foreign tourists entering Thailand. There were also more economic activities with both public and private sectors started hosting more events. This is a sign of resurgence, a supporting factor for Thailand’s overall economy to recover.”
The quarter 3 of 2022 brought in 46,234 million baht of total revenue, increased 9.1% YoY and 2.1% QoQ. Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) in this quarter was at 22,091million baht, reduced -3.5% YoY and -1.2% QoQ. EBITDA Margin remained strong at 48%. Net profit for 3Q22 was 6,032million baht, decreasing -5.4% YoY and -4.3% QoQ. Operating results by business segment are as follows:
• Mobile Business AIS reported a revenue decrease of -0.3% YoY and -0.4% QoQ. There was a net increase of 157,300 subscribers in this quarter due to continued strong increases in post-paid segment. As a result, total subscribers stood at 45.7 million, divided into 33.3 million prepaid and 12.4 million postpaid users. AIS drove 5G users up to 5.5 million subscribers, an increase of 41% QoQ. The continued efforts in rolling out 5G network involved installing network base stations nationwide supporting both low and high spectrum bandwidths. This brought AIS to increase the network coverage to 85% of the population and maintain the position of No. 1.
• Fixed Broadband Business: AIS Fibre showed an outstanding performance with its service standards of a professional team on hand for 24-hour troubleshooting. New high-performance equipment was introduced to the market, an AI-controlled router for smart enhancement of the Wi-Fi signal and support speeds of 2Gbps. This router helps bringing efficient allocation of Wi-Fi bandwidth to a diverse range of consumer use cases under the same home according to the needs and usages required. Consequently, AIS Fibre‘s revenue grew 16% YoY and 2.2% QoQ, with 114,500 customers added to bring the customer base to a total of 2.1 million.
• Enterprise Business: AIS non-mobile Enterprise revenue grew by 17% YoY. The company remains committed to support and assist Thai businesses to become more resilient by working with leading partners to provide a competitive edge and transform organizations with digital infrastructure through customized digital solutions and tools. AIS 5G NEXTGen Platform is the first of its kind venue to develop 5G use cases in Thailand. AIS also launched AIS Cloud X, a smart cloud ecosystem, as a result of international collaborations with Cisco to offer Cloud Security services for businesses. AIS Biz App Mart, the first marketplace software in Thailand, offering the best business solutions and tools from Microsoft was also launched to support Thai businesses to digitally transform their organization. The overall direction is maintained to collaborate with partners in every sector to build a complete 5G ecosystem for the future of Thailand’s digital economy.
“AIS has maintained a satisfactory performance in this quarter in spite of many external pressures whether it was competition or other challenges. We believe that at the crux of being a Cognitive Tech-Co, the current company vision, will require hard work and dedication from the team to develop the smart networks into digital services that can help foster the growth into the future.
As a leader in network digital services, AIS is not only working to upgrade service quality, we also have a key commitment to maintain resilience in the country’s digital infrastructure. We will continue to invest with a budget of 30,000 million baht to improve network efficiency and expand service coverage. This will support increased demand from both the general public and enterprise customers,” concluded Somchai.
