M1 continued to build on its strong brand by reinforcing the “1 life. live it” brand message - that M1 aims to empower customers to live life to the fullest through M1’s communication solutions, which keep customers engaged, entertained and informed wherever they are. In February, against a global field of competitors, M1 won the“ Best Broadcast Commercial” award at the 2005 GSM Association Awards ceremony held in Cannes, France, for the “1 life. live it” television commercial.

M1 was the presenting sponsor for Quidam, the third Cirque du Soleil performance in Singapore sponsored by M1. The sponsorship elevated M1’s brand positioning through an integrated marketing communications programme that spanned across all product groups. The show took place in the third quarter and in the run-up to the opening, various marketing and advertising initiatives were held to leverage on M1’s sponsorship.

A major highlight of the year for M1 was the commercial launch of 3G services on the W-CDMA network in February, making it the first mobile operator to do so in Singapore. The higher network speeds enabled by 3G support services like video calls, video streaming and faster data access, opening up new possibilities for entertainment, information and communications while on the move.

In line with expectations, initial adoption of 3G services was gradual, given that available 3G handset models were not yet sufficiently appealing in form and function to the mass market. More attractive models have started to be introduced since the last quarter of the year and these will help boost the adoption rate. Thus, in 2005, rather than seeking to drive 3G handset sales, M1 focused on developing and introducing 3G contents and services, and educating customers on the possibilities offered by 3G as a medium of information and entertainment. Beyond faster access to all the content available on the MiWorld mobile portal, services offered on 3G include access to news from Channel News Asia, CNN and Bloomberg TV; streaming of music videos, trailers of new movie releases and sports video clips; and downloading of MP3 songs. M1 also teamed up with content partners to offer a range of exclusive, localised made-for-3G content which included Asia’s first Chinese 3G drama–“ P.S... I Luv U” and first English 3G thriller drama–“ POV Murder”, Channel U’s Project SuperStars, TV12’s Project Pilot, MediaCorp Classics video clips of popular Mandarin TV dramas of yesteryear, as well as showcased work by film students from local tertiary institutions.

In 2005, M1 saw strong growth in the prepaid segment, with prepaid mobile telecommunications revenue growing 33% as a result of an expansion in the customer base as well as improved ARPU. The strong showing may be attributed to the introduction of various innovative price plans and service enhancements in the year. These included the Free Incoming Calls Plan introduced in February, which was a first in Singapore and proved to be highly popular, and was followed by Free SMS Plan in May, both of which involved a unique daily deduction of a fixed amount, akin to a subscription. The Chat EZ Plan, aimed at customers with high voice usage, was revamped in October to make it more attractive to customers. In the year, there were several product enhancements to M1’s prepaid service, including the introduction of GPRS and roaming SMS. Following the implementation of more stringent requirements for customer registration for prepaid service in November, roadshows and incentives were introduced to encourage existing customers to register.

The postpaid segment continued to be the mainstay of M1’s mobile business. Although postpaid customers accounted for 65% of M1’s mobile customer base as at end December 2005, they contributed 89% of mobile telecommunications revenue in 2005. During the year, M1 undertook several marketing initiatives to grow and retain the postpaid base. This included a new postpaid price plan - Suntalk Super - aimed at giving customers the flexibility to use the bundled dollars within the plan for local voice calls, SMS and IDD calls. The average monthly postpaid churn rate in 2005 was 1.5%, which was a slight improvement over 2004’s 1.6%. This reflects M1’s continued emphasis on retaining our customers through attractive loyalty programmes and activities. At the same time, M1 managed to reduce both acquisition and retention costs compared to the previous year.

With continued focus on growing data services and developing customer usage of such services, non-voice services’ contribution to ARPU increased to 19.6% in 2005, from 17.6% in 2004. The year saw the launch of several products and services, the key ones being the following:

•	Movie Ticketing , a service that allows M1 customers to book and pay for cinema tickets through the MiWorld mobile portal
•	Cyber Message Centre , which provides customers with an easy and convenient means of sending messages, including pictures, personal videos and MP3 files, from their personal computers to mobile phones in Singapore and overseas
•	BlackBerry® from Vodafone , a wireless communications solution, for both consumer and business segments, that gives wireless access to e-mail, phone, organiser, corporate data and the Internet
•	BubbleTALK™, which allows users to send a voice message to another party, who will be alerted via an SMS and can retrieve the voice message at a later time
•	Watch-a-Video , a video delivery service that allows customers to subscribe to more than 20 different channels of programmes
•	Multi-SIM , two SIM cards with a single number, a service that allows customers to switch effortlessly between different mobile devices while using a single mobile number

M1’s total international outgoing retail minutes grew by 22.1% in 2005 to 210 million minutes, from 2004’s 172 million minutes, while international call service revenue (retail plus wholesale & bilateral) grew 9.3% to S$121.8 million from 2004’s S$111.4 million. This growth was on the back of a strong Singapore economy, which translated into buoyant consumer sentiment and business activities. M1 also implemented various price-related retail promotions to stimulate customer usage, such as free IDD calls to selected countries on the prepaid M Card and special promotions catering to niche segments and customer communities.

M1 has an extensive network of operator-owned retail shops (M1 Shop) and operator-appointed distributor outlets throughout Singapore that serve the consumer segment and a corporate sales unit that serves the business segment. As at 31 December 2005, M1 operated a total of 12 M1 Shop outlets (comprising 6 main shops and 6 mini shops). In addition, M1 runs an e-shop, which provides online sale of mobile phones and accessories.

Customer satisfaction continued to be the mainstay of M1’s customer service proposition in 2005. With 3G, M1 took an important step forward to introduce customers to the new service by welcoming them on video calls. This initiative was very effective in guiding customers into this new experience and their feedback was very positive.

The year was also notable for M1’s continuing success in uplifting its service delivery while keeping operational costs down. M1 continued to win industry awards for service excellence (Excellent Service Award (EXSA)) and call centre management (Contact Centre Association of Singapore (CCAS) annual awards), taking the inaugural Special Award for People Innovation in Call Centre.

M1 continued to enhance its 3G network coverage and quality in response to market requirements and customer feedback. M1 also enhanced its 2G network coverage in several new building developments island-wide.

During the year, the company completed technical trials of three wireless broadband technologies and commenced a technical trial using a pre-WiMAX and Meshed WiFi combination for wireless broadband service.

M1-Vodafone
M1 continued to leverage on its partnership with Vodafone to enhance the communications experience of customers. Besides services such as welcome SMS and short-code dialling when overseas in countries with a Vodafone network, M1 customers enjoyed access to a growing network of GPRS, 3G and CAMEL (Customised Application for Mobile Network Enhanced Logic) prepaid roaming destinations on the Vodafone global footprint. As at end December 2005, M1 had established GPRS roaming with 32 Vodafone networks, and 3G roaming with 15 Vodafone networks out of its world-wide coverage of 33 networks in 25 countries. CAMEL prepaid roaming is available for M1 customers with Vodafone partners in 14 countries.

In April, M1 launched BlackBerry^® from Vodafone with attractive roaming bundles for both corporate and individual customers in Singapore. BlackBerry, developed by Research In Motion (RIM), is a leading wireless communications solution that allows users to stay connected with wireless access to e-mail, phone, organiser, corporate data and the Internet.

In December, M1 launched Vodafone Data Roaming (VDR), which offers a single data tariff for M1 customers roaming on Vodafone networks. This service, which was initially available in 8 countries and will be further extended, gives M1 customers up to 60% savings on data charges when roaming on Vodafone networks.

Asia Mobility Initiative
Asia Mobility Initiative (AMI) is a grouping of mobile operators in the region, formed to enhance customer experience, especially in the area of mobile data, through inter-operator collaboration. The current members are M1 (Singapore), Celcom (Malaysia), Excelcomindo (Indonesia), D-TAC (Thailand), Smart (Philippines) and Telstra (Australia). Celcom and Excelcomindo are subsidiaries of Telekom Malaysia Group. In March, three members – M1, D-TAC and Smart – implemented AsiaConnect, a tariff plan that gives customers of the three operators a flat rate for voice calls made while roaming on one another’s network. Besides that, customers also enjoy special rates for GPRS roaming and free SMS.

During the year, SunShare Investments Ltd, a joint venture company of TM International Sdn Bhd, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Telekom Malaysia Bhd, and Khazanah Nasional Bhd, acquired a strategic stake in M1. While M1 already cooperates with Telekom Malaysia and Celcom through AMI, this development serves to further strengthen the relationship and opens up opportunities to explore potential areas of synergy.

M1-PLDT
In December, M1 and PLDT Singapore entered into a partnership to provide prepaid mobile services targeted at the Filipino community in Singapore. The service, which will be launched in 2006, will be marketed under the Smart brand. Smart Communications, a wholly-owned subsidiary of PLDT, is the leading mobile operator in the Philippines and the Smart brand is a household name to Filipinos. As well as basic voice and SMS services, Filipino-centric contents, m-commerce and other value-added services will be offered.