During the AGM last week, management hinted that they were about to launch a new product offering.
This morning, coinciding with NBN's announcement of a new pricing structure for NBN50 product, TPG is one of the first RSPs (if not the first) who announced a new product based on this new NBN offer.
For $69.99 / month, customers are able to get the 50Mbps speed, which for most people would be fast enough and faster than their existing ADSL2 speed.
On top of that, for an extra $10, they are able to get unlimited calls (including to mobiles), texts.
This is a very attractive offer that I imagine most people would be willing to take up.
I also note that it looks like TPG has dropped NBN25 from its product lineup.
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The next thing that I would like to share is TPG's progress in their mobile rollout.
For the past few months, I've been using RFNSA website to track TPG's progress in rolling out its mobile network.
|
Column 1 |
Column 2 |
| 1 |
Date |
No. Sites |
| 2 |
01/09/2017 |
16 |
| 3 |
19/09/2017 |
17 |
| 4 |
21/09/2017 |
19 |
| 5 |
22/09/2017 |
21 |
| 6 |
05/10/2017 |
22 |
| 7 |
27/10/2017 |
23 |
| 8 |
31/10/2017 |
33 |
| 9 |
03/11/2017 |
35 |
| 10 |
06/11/2017 |
36 |
| 11 |
13/11/2017 |
39 |
| 12 |
07/12/2017 |
45 |
| 13 |
12/12/2017 |
46 |
| 14 |
13/12/2017 |
50 |
| 15 |
14/12/2017 |
58 |
So far in December, TPG has started to quicken the pace of its rollout. Most of the sites chosen in December are in the Melbourne CBD area. Today's 8 new sites are in the Sydney CBD area.
Please note that most of these new sites are small cell antennas that are proposed to be installed on existing infrastructure such as street lights.
It is also important to point out that most of the chosen sites are very close or even right on top of TPG's existing fibre paths. This close access to the backhaul network is crucial to maintain the installation costs as low as possible.
This is why owning one of Australia's largest network of fibre gives TPG a very unique opportunity to become the 4th mobile operator in the country.
Those observers who are concerned about TPG's "lack" of spectrum need to know that as small cells coverage is relatively small (in hundreds of metres, instead of in a few kilometres), a dense network of small cells basically allows TPG to reuse the same spectrum again and again.
In the AGM, they also announced that they are extending their mid-2018 rollout target by including Adelaide and Brisbane to Sydney, Melbourne and Canberra, to have initial clusters of sites ready by that time.
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In the AGM, management confirmed that they are tracking well against their earnings guidance. With the Adelaide city partnership starting in early 2018 and Vodafone contract revenue starting to roll in towards the end of FY2018, and mobile rollout still on track and within budget, I'm quietly confident that TPG will be able to beat the upper limit of its underlying EBITDA guidance of $815m.
It's also worth noting that management is watching every single line of expense very carefully and they don't spend money on things that are unnecessary. How do I know this? There was no lunch provided after the AGM last week. We shareholders should be content with just tea and coffee and a few biscuits.
As a shareholder, this example of thriftiness is something that actually makes me very happy.
P.S. I intend to update the above table regularly and share it in this forum every few months.
