Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to the Taiwan Mobile's conference call, and our chairperson today is Mr. Jamie Lin. Mr. Lin, please begin the call, and I'll be standing by for the question-and-answer session.
Thank you, Moderator. Good afternoon, everyone. Welcome to Taiwan Mobile's second quarter 2024 results conference call. As per usual, let's first read through the disclaimer. Disclaimer: The information contained in this presentation, including all forward-looking information, is subject to change without notice, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise. Taiwan Mobile Company Limited, or hereafter the company, undertakes no obligation to update or revise the information contained in this presentation. No representation, warranty, or undertaking expressed or implied is or will be given by the company as to the adequacy, accuracy, completeness, and correctness of the information contained herein. Financial numbers in this document may include preliminary and audited numbers and management accounts. All right, now that's started our presentation, please turn to page four for highlights of the quarter.
As Taiwan Mobile merged with Taiwan Star on the first of last December, we are now two quarters into the integration process, and I'm happy to report that we are ahead of the game and doing much better than expected. Our mobile service revenue came in strong again, growing at 26% YoY during the quarter, boosted by the addition and upselling of the 2 million Taiwan Star postpaid users, as well as continued organic growth from our existing customer base. Meanwhile, MOMO posted a 2% revenue growth, albeit decelerated momentum, as Taiwan goes through a post-COVID leisure boom cycle. Our home broadband engine grew by 4% YoY on the back of effective cross-selling towards our mobile and pay-TV customers. In Q2 2024, consolidated EBITDA went up by 19% year-over-year, mainly driven by our mobile business.
Thanks to the merger synergies from faster-than-expected integration, consolidated operating income increased by 11% YoY, reaching a seven-year high. Before diving into the specifics of our mobile business, let me share some figures related to our merger synergies with you on page five. We're approximately three months ahead of our most optimistic project. I'm sorry, we're approximately three months ahead of our most optimistic projection for base station consolidation. This has resulted in significant savings in our network costs and site rental expenses. Subsidies, direct store, and personnel costs have also come in lower than our projections. As a result, our telecom EBIT on a pro forma basis increased from approximately $4 billion in the first half of 2023 to $6.23 billion, $6.23 billion in the first half of 2024, reflecting an impressive 53% YoY growth.
At the beginning of the year, we guided a consolidated EBITDA growth of 11%-13% YoY, and we're pleased to report that we have delivered a 20% growth in the first half of 2024 on that regard. In absolute terms, our first-half consolidated EBITDA came in at TWD 21 billion, setting a new record for the company. Now, let's take a closer look at our mobile business on the next page. The smartphone postpaid ARPU of our existing Taiwan Mobile users grew more than 6% YoY in Q2 2024, thanks to continued tailwind from our unique bundles, further 5G upselling, and benign 4G pricing. In terms of contract renewals, monthly fee uplift was 47% for 4G to 5G upgrade and 8% for overall, maintaining the healthy momentum seen in the previous quarters.
On a sequential basis, ARPU and mobile service revenue already started to edge higher as a result of our successful upselling efforts and strong revenue momentum in our gaming business. Postpaid monthly churn rate remained at only 0.7%, reflecting a rational competitive environment and effective promotion of our bundles. With 5G penetration in our smartphone postpaid user base currently at 38%, or 40% excluding TSTAR users, a long runway lies ahead for further ARPU and mobile service revenue upside. Next, let's turn to page seven for updates on our e-commerce business. In Q2 2024, MOMO's revenue grew by 2% YoY, with healthy increases in active users and total number of orders. EBITDA margin fell slightly YoY, mainly due to a lower take rate in a slower demand environment. Other than our existing B2C 1P business, MOMO will also scale up 3P advertising and live commerce businesses in the coming quarters.
Next, let's take a look at our broadband business on the next page. Our broadband business continued to grow in Q2 2024, with the number of subscribers rising by 4% on the back of steady demand for faster connectivity and our bundles, which include cable TV, broadband, mobile, and/or our unique OTT services, such as MyVideo, Disney+, HBO GO, and YouTube Premium. Broadband subs, including double-play bundles, users who are on speeds of 300 Mbps or higher, increased by 46% YoY during the quarter. The YoY decline in overall cable TV revenue was primarily caused by the discontinued content distribution deal with Disney, as Disney exited its TV channel business in Taiwan earlier this year. Overall, EBITDA grew YoY, driven by broadband strength. Now, let me pass the virtual mic over to our CFO, George Chang, for a financial overview.
Thank you, Jamie. Good afternoon. Let's start with the performance by business. In the second quarter of 2024, consolidated revenue reached $47.7 billion. With the help of the TSTAR merger, telecom business contributed a majority of the YoY revenue growth and accounted for 43% of our consolidated revenue. Decent growth was also seen, even if we strip out the merger impact. As for profitability, consolidated EBITDA exceeded $10 billion for two quarters in a row and remained around the record high level. The YoY increase of $1.7 billion was mainly driven by telecom, while cable TV also delivered YoY growth. Let's go to the result summary. In addition to double-digit expansion in revenue and EBITDA, consolidated operating income rose by 11% YoY to a seven-year high in Q2 2024, as telecom EBIT growth accelerated to 17% YoY during the quarter.
Once again, on a pro forma basis, or taking TSTAR into consideration, the growth rate of EBIT versus last year is even much higher. Despite the larger non-op expenses due to higher financing costs, net profit grew by 8% year-over-year in the first half of 2024. With the dilution from the new shares issued to TSTAR shareholders, the first half of 2024 EPS was flattish year-over-year. And let's move on to the balance sheet. Receivables and contract assets rose year-over-year, driven by the growth in postpaid subscribers, including TSTAR users, and monthly fee contributions from our mobile bundle plans. PP&E and concessions also increased year-over-year, which was attributable to TSTAR's mobile equipment spectrum, as well as MOMO's distribution center. Right-of-use assets saw another quarter-on-quarter decline, thanks to further consolidation of TSTAR's base stations. Gross debt went up year-over-year to $86.2 billion, owing to the borrowing inherited from TSTAR.
However, this has decreased QoQ as we pay down some bank borrowings since the merger. Benefiting from the incremental EBITDA, net debt to EBITDA declined sequentially to 1.7 x in Q2 2024. In fact, this is already back to the pre-merger level seen in 2023. Lastly, let's look at the cash flow on the next slide. In Q2 2024, cash earnings rose by 17% YoY on the back of solid growth in telecom EBITDA. Although operating cash flow fell slightly YoY during the quarter due to the changes in working capital for the first half of the year, operating cash flow still increased by 39% YoY. Despite the decrease in our Q2 2024 CAPEX plan, an increase in the first half of 2024 investing cash outflow reflected the payment associated with the network consolidation following the emerging MOMO's logistic capacity expansion.
Financing cash outflow plummeted due to a high base of debt repayment and the timing difference in MOMO's dividend payment versus a year ago. Free cash flow calculated on a recurring pre-IFRS 16 basis was TWD 4.5 billion in Q2 2024, translating into an annualized free cash flow yield of 5.5%. Let me turn the presentation back to Jamie for event update and key message.
Thank you, George. We're glad to share with you that on page 15, Taiwan Mobile was once again recognized in the Institutional Investor's 2024 Asia Executive Team ranking. In a highly competitive overall Asia region, which includes much larger Chinese peers, we are honored to have placed first in Best CEO, Best CFO, Best ESG categories for two consecutive years. We're also the only telecom company from Taiwan to be recognized as a Most Honored Company, and we've done this for three years in a row. In the rest of the Asia ex-China region, Taiwan Mobile was voted the number one telecom company for three consecutive years, while receiving first place rankings in five categories. I would like to take this chance to express our most sincere gratitude to our investors and covering analysts.
We could not have achieved this without your trust and support, and we remain committed to further improvement. Thank you all. We truly appreciate every single one of your votes. In terms of ESG recognitions, Taiwan Mobile was ranked in the top 5% in the corporate governance evaluation by Taiwan Stock Exchange for the 10th consecutive year. We have been a constituent of the Taiwan Sustainability Index for seven consecutive years and have won a total of 14 top prizes in Global Views Magazine's 2024 ESG Awards. The most among our telecom peers. Finally, on page 16, to wrap up our presentation for today, here's the key message we would like for you to take away with. Key message. Taiwan Mobile delivered exceptional top-line and EBITDA performance in our core telecom business during the first half of 2024, driven by robust organic growth and seamless post-merger integration.
Building on this success, we are confident in our ability to unlock the full potential of the merger and introducing innovative products and services tailored to our broader customer base. Through this strategic approach, we will strive to further accelerate our growth trajectory in the years to come. With that, let's open the floor for questions. If you're participating online, you're welcome to send your questions via the chat box. We will begin by addressing the telephone line questions before we move on to the web. Operator, please go ahead.
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, the question and answer section now begins. If anyone wishes to ask a question, please press star one on your telephone keypad. If anyone wishes to ask a question, please press star one on your telephone touchpad. Our first question has come from Neil Anderson with HSBC and Neil. Please go ahead.
Thank you. Good afternoon. I'd like to ask about the point on page five. So, the consolidated EBITDA, you're up 20% year-on-year relative to guidance of 11%-13%. Could you give any more details on the breakdown of where that's coming from? I assume it's quicker than expected synergies from the TSTAR merger. So, if that's the case, you're bringing those forward. Does that change how you think about the next 18 months in terms of if you've realized those benefits faster than expected? Is that going to be, is that going to slow you down in the future, or can you maintain a similar growth rate in EBITDA? Thanks.
Hey, thank you, Neil. I'm sorry, you were breaking up a little bit, the bottom half of your question. Would you mind repeating it again, maybe in a slower manner?
Yes, sure. So, it relates to page five, 20% ahead of EBITDA, sorry, growth in EBITDA relative to the guidance of 11%-13%. Can you give any more detail on the breakdown, where you're ahead of schedule in terms of TSTAR integration and how that changes your thinking, if it does, about the next sort of year, 18 months, particularly with regard to the TSTAR integration?
Got it. Thank you, Neil. So, I think the vast majority is coming from the fact that we're about three months ahead of the game in terms of integrating the base stations. And so, for every base station we turn off from the TSTAR side, there's associated network costs, electricity costs, rental costs, and everything that we can save. So, when you're one month ahead of schedule, then you timed that by the amount of base stations and the cost you can save per base station, then that's the extra saving you can generate from sort of good execution. So, I think that's the majority. And the other big one would be the subsidies, save on the subsidies.
So, we realized that the TSTAR subscribers have a much better response to our unique bundles, which is better for us in terms of upselling users at a more sort of economical manner in terms of subsidy spending. So, I think those two are the two big ticket items. And we do foresee sort of going forward, as we further consolidate the network, the savings from the first one to continue to realize. And also, we do expect next year we're going to be able to enjoy that saving for a full year. In terms of subsidies, I think it's also quite recurring. So, it turns out that the TSTAR users like our unique bundles very much. And I don't think that's going away anytime soon.
Thanks. That's very helpful.
Thank you, Neil.
Thank you. Just a moment again. If you wish to ask a question, please press star one on your telephone keypad. If anyone wishes to ask a question, please press star one on your telephone keypad. Sorry, Mr. Lin, we don't have questions from the audio side at this point of time.
Okay. If that's the case, I want to thank everyone for joining us today at our Q2 results conference call. Again, I want to thank everyone for your support during the Institutional Investors' voting process. Really, really appreciate your recognition. Thank you again. Have a good afternoon, and we look forward to seeing you again at our next conference call.
Thank you. Thank you for your participation. This concludes the conference. Thank you.