Our chairperson today is Jamie Lin. Mr. Lin, please begin your call and I'll be standing by for the Q&A. Thank you.
Thank you, operator. Good afternoon, everyone. Welcome to Taiwan Mobile, as always. The information contained in this presentation, including all forward-looking information, is subject to change without notice, whether as a result of new information, further events or otherwise contained in this presentation. No representation or warranty, either expressed or implied, is provided in relation to the accuracy, completeness or reliability of the information contained herein, nor as to future events or developments referred to in this presentation. All right. Now let's start with our business overview. Please turn to page four for the highlights of the quarter. As you can see from this slide, all three of our main growth engines delivered solid top-line expansions in the third quarter. Revenues from both our mobile services and broadband business, despite a high base, but its YoY trend remained robust despite COVID.
As a result, our consolidated EBITDA for the quarter rose by 9% YoY, to a level that is higher than the third quarter of 2020 and the third quarter of 2019. For the first three quarters by 18% and 5% respectively, both well ahead of our full year guidance. Next, let's turn to page five for a closer look at our mobile business. This was mainly by ARPU improvement driven by continued 5G upselling as the month. The take-ups of our exclusive of 26% in the quarter. Double Play or [Non-English content] in Mandarin and momobile or MoBi packages remain solid. We expanded our MSO partnership this quarter, and as a result, our Double Play footprint now covers over 70% three months ago.
The launch [audio distortion] increasing from 1.1% of the iPhone 13 series on September 24, also provided more fuel. Position ourselves against future ARPU erosion and 5G rate plans. To better retain, we continue to focus on our 48-month contracts, providing the best service and the greatest bundle options. Currently, our 48-month program accounts for close to 30% of our NTD 999 or higher 5G user base and Open Possible co-branded credit card with 5G Momentum. We have recently launched the Fubon Bank . It offers a host of cardholder benefits, including a rebate on carrier bills, the highest in the industry by a wide margin. Open Possible card is well received by the market, so far yielding 2x more [audio distortion]. The growing cardholder base will bode well for 5G, our direct carrier billing business and customer loyalty.
Last but not least, the highly anticipated streaming service in Taiwan portfolio, we are the exclusive telecom partner of Disney+, and we look forward to unveiling attractive bundle packages. As we increase our line-up of products and services to offer unique values to different market segments, we expect our momentum to continue while churn to remain low. For an update on our e-commerce business. Coming off a high second quarter base boosted by COVID, our e-commerce revenue saw a slight sequential decline. Economies of scale and operating leverage. momo YoY. Thanks to e-commerce, EBITDA soared by 102% YoY, translating to expansion to 5.4% in the third quarter.
Looking ahead, as e-commerce penetration of the retail market still in addition, our investment in Tiki for our e-commerce business to grow beyond Taiwan. Let's take a look at our broadband business on the next page. persisted even after the alert level. This resulted in and fibers and ARPUs both saw sequential increase. Expansion of broadband revenue growth to 14% YoY in the third quarter were double. Let me turn the presentation over to Rosie for financial overview.
Hi. Good afternoon. This is Rosie. Let's start with the performance by business improvement, which helped increase expanded with steady ARPU telecom revenue growth to 7% year-on-year in the third quarter. Our Taiwan Mobile started recognizing in August, helped telecom EBITDA grow even more year-on-year in the third quarter. Although CapEx subsided thanks to our front-loaded rollout strategy. As a result, telecom EBIT decline narrowed significantly to 4% year-on-year, underpinned by accelerating broadband revenue momentum. Momo continued on its growth trajectory, bolstered by e-commerce. Let's go to results summary. In addition to solid top line growth, telecom and cable EBITDA saw to the year-on-year increase in consolidated impact on telecom profitability started to as 5G CapEx diminish. Effective 5G upselling and Momo's upbeat performance helped consolidate in the third quarter.
Net income also turned to a year-over-year increase, the first time since the first quarter of 2020. [The difference in the year-on year trends] For the first three quarters of this year, consolidated revenue and EBITDA were both ahead of our full year guidance released earlier this year. [Offset by] 5G license payment during the past, along with much lower CapEx in these three quarters. The year-over-year rise in long-term investment stems from our 5G network rollout. PP&E rose on the back of the second half of 2020. While non-current contract assets climbed year-over-year as iPhone 13 series and momo's business expansion abilities, the release caused an uptick in payables year-over-year. Gross debt rose quarter-over-quarter on bank borrowings to fund our dividend payments. Other current liabilities went down quarter-over-quarter in tandem. Lastly, let's look at cash flow analysis.
flow increased year-over-year on the back of growing cash earnings from our telecom business. While the quarter-over-quarter drop reflected the fluctuation in momo and our investment in Tiki. Financing cash outflow went up year-over-year this quarter as the increase in bank borrowings was smaller than a year ago. With pre-IFRS 16, operating cash flow reached NTD 10.3 billion in the first three quarters of this year, translating into an annualized free-
The awards and recognitions we received during the. Finally, on page 15, let me recap for your reference. As of our presentation, here's the key message we'd like you to take away with you. With our strong market position, [with namely] 4G/ 5G, momo and home broadband to continue firing on all cylinders. Digitalization will provide additional tailwind to the continuing. With cash flow compression from 5G CapEx behind us, sequentially lower cash CapEx and improving consolidated EBITDA should help strengthen our position such as metaverse in order to capture more growth opportunities in the 5G era for our shareholders. With that, let me open the floor up for Q&A.
[audio distortion] from HSBC, please go ahead. Thank you.
I have a couple of questions on the broadband business, please. You've mentioned the momo broadband growth. Do you expect that to continue or is it the COVID-19 and homeworking factors that underpin that? Or is it also the result of related services? That's the first question. The second one relates to Disney+ and fit with the pay- TV service where you booked a 5% decline in revenue in the third quarter. Do you think that can be complementary and help reduce that rate of decline? Or is there any risk of kind of-
[Into] the cycle of our on top of that, we're also first batch of Double Play customers, their contracts are up for renewal. We're also observing many of them choosing higher bandwidth and higher rate plans. You know, expanding our MSO partnership and on our footprint to be able to serve more customers. Then number two, like you said, people's increasing need for broadband. Yes, we do have a player and we are always observing market share is relatively smaller being the industry dynamics that is happening in countries that are disruptor.
I think our strategy is to work with services like Disney+ and be the disruptor instead of being disrupted. Hope that-
on your telephone. Thank you. Once again, ladies and gentlemen, please press star one-
We have a follow-up question from [Lewis].
Levels of investment, or if not now, can you give us in terms of, you know, relatively any guidance on when you will be able to give more details on the size of that investment? Thank you.
We will, in the coming quarters, hopefully be able to share more details in-
Okay. Thank you.
Ladies and gentlemen, please dial one key for questions. Ladies and gentlemen, you may register for question. Please press star one on your telephone. Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, to register for question, please press star one on your telephone.
If we have no more questions, should we just thank everybody to-
Thank you for participation. This concludes the conference. Goodbye.