Singapore - Singapore Telecommunications Ltd said Wednesday its combined regional mobile phone customer base grew by 33 per cent to more than 262 million customers.

SingTel, South-east Asia's biggest telecommunications company, said its regional customer base increased by 64 million during the 12-month period ending in June.

On a quarterly basis, SingTel's customer base in its eight markets - Australia, Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, Pakistan, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand - climbed by 5.1 per cent, or 13 million, up from 249 million at the end of March, the company said in a statement.

Bharti in India, one of SingTel's six associates in Asia, posted the biggest jump, with mobile customer numbers reaching 102.4 million by the end of June, an increase by
48 per cent, or 33 million, year-on-year.

Indonesia's Telkomsel signed up 23.6 million new mobile customers to reach 76 million by end of June, a rise of 45 per cent year-on-year.

In the Philippines, Globe had a customer base of 25 million in June, an increase of 10 per cent, while Thailand's Advanced Info Service added 1.9 million mobile customers, or 7.5 per cent, to reach 27.9 million, SingTel said.

In Pakistan, SingTel's associate Warid had 17.9 million mobile customers in June, up 15 per cent from a year ago.

Pacific Bangladesh also posted a year-on-year increase of 15 per cent to reach 2 million mobile customers end of June.

SingTel's wholly-owned Australian unit Optus expanded its customer base by 11 per cent to more than 8 million as of June 30, the company said.

SingTel said it would announce its results on Thursday for the first quarter of its financial year, which ended June 30. (dpa)