JAKARTA: The sluggish cellular phone market has prompted PT XL Axiata Tbk to only set its subscriber growth at less than 20% during the Ramadan month this year.The phone operator, which currently has 40 million subscribers, expects it will have net increase of six million in the period.Such a subscriber growth is relatively lower compared to last years Ramadan, said Asni Juita., XL Axiata VP Customer Experience Enhancement. During last year's Ramadan, net increase was 30% to 40%. We cannot be too aggressive this year as the market has been relatively different, we have to be realistic. Our total number of subscribers at end of the first quarter was 40.4 million, she said after yesterdays new product launch.She declined to detail out the additional monthly revenue subsequent to the 6 million net additions.XL Axiata will establish 100 new mobile phone towers, or base transceiver stations, and 18 mobile phone towers during this coming Ramadan to ensure the network quality, said XL Axiata CEO Hasnul Suhaimi.The financing is partly derived from US$500 million allocated capex from early this year, he explained.PT Sucorinvest Central Gani Director Adrian Rusmana said XL Axiata is too ambitious amidst this sluggish market particularly with the tight competition in the industry.XL Axiatas new subscribers add another 1 milion-2.5 million a month.A 20% growth within a month is such an ambitious target. The current sluggish market is different from last year, he said.If XL Axiata dampens tariffs to attract those new subscribers, then the bigger customer base would not significantly improve its revenue, Adrian added.During this coming Ramadan, XL Axiata projects telecommunication traffic including phone, data and SMS to soar by 30%. (t02/msw)

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