Malaysian mobile operator Digi reported a weak Q4 with profit and revenue both falling, but the operator added subscribers over the course of 2016 to push it into second place slightly behind market leader Maxis.

Its Q4 net profit slipped 1.8 per cent year-on-year to MYR375 million ($84 million), but EBITDA increased 5.7 per cent to MYR741 million. Revenue dropped 3 per cent to MYR1.67 billion, while service revenue was down 2 per cent to MYR1.56 billion.

Postpaid revenue grew 13.6 per cent to MYR511 million supported by a 14 per cent increase in postpaid subscribers to 4.2 million. Prepaid revenue fell by 8.2 per cent to MYR1.04 billion, with its prepaid subscriber base flat at 10.2 million. It finished the year with 12.3 million subscribers.

Digi, a subsidiary of Norway’s Telenor, was the only operator in the top three to increase its subscriber base, allowing it to gain market share on both Maxis and Celcom. Digi is now number two with a 28 per cent share, marginally behind Maxis (28.1 per cent) and now ahead of Celcom (26.9 per cent), which was ranked second a year ago, according to GSMA Intelligence.

Malaysian operators’ overall subscriber base fell about 1 per cent last year to 41.9 million.

Digi said LTE subs grew 81 per cent to 4.2 million in 2016. Average data usage per user on prepaid increased 0.9 times, and 1.4 times on postpaid compared with last year.

The operator’s outlook for 2017 is stable, with service revenue and EBITDA margin forecast to remain at last year’s level.