The company, also known as SingTel, said in a statement Thursday that net income for its fiscal first quarter rose to 945 million Singapore dollars ($654 million), up from SG$878 million a year earlier.

"The current operating environment remains a challenge," Chief Executive Chua Sock Koong said. SingTel said income gained 1.9 percent to SG$3.85 billion as its global subscriber base jumped by a third to 262 million. A stronger Singapore dollar undermined profits from overseas units, the company said.

SingTel's stakes in operators in Australia, Thailand, Indonesia, India, the Philippines, Pakistan and Bangladesh account for more than half of the company's profits.

"If we look at the economic numbers that have been announced across the region, we're probably quite comfortable that the worst is over," Chua said. "But we see that the growth across sectors in the economy is actually still uneven."