Releasing its results for the March quarter, Optus reported a 9% decline in revenue due to the competition watchdog’s fee changes.

From 1 January all carriers’ mobile termination rates declined from 3.6 cents per minute to 1.7 cents per minutes for calls, and 7.5 cents to 0.03 cents for SMS.

For the financial year ended 31 March, Optus says it has delivered full year revenue and EBITDA growth - operating revenue was up 4% to $9.12 billion, while EBITDA grew 6% to $2.77 billion, and annual net profit grew 7% to $901 million.

And, underlying net profit also grew 7% year-on-year to $931 million.

Optus says blended mobile handset average revenue per user (ARPU) increased 5% year-on-year, “excluding the impact of the decline in mobile termination rates and device repayment plan credits”.

According to Optus, demand for its 4G services continues, with the telco reporting it has added 231,000 4G customers, and at the end of the quarter had 4.68 million 4G Plus customers, an increase of 33% in the 12-month period.

And, the telco says it had its strongest fourth quarter for its branded postpaid net adds, with the addition of 78,000 customers, while overall, postpaid handset customers grew 69,000, excluding the impact of the deactivation of wholesale customers. Prepaid handset customers grew with the addition of 16,000 subscribers.

The telco – Australia’s second largest – also says it now has 113,000 NBN broadband customers, for a total of 1.07 million broadband customers.

Allen Lew, Optus Chief Executive Officer, said, “The strong results which Optus has reported over the last year reinforces that our focus on providing convergent mobile, fixed and multi-media services, combined with our innovative offers, is gaining traction with Australians.

“We are well on track to achieve our three-year targets which will see us transform our core business, by investing in mobile networks and content services.”