O2 Ireland posts solid Q1 performance

16-05-2007

by Ciara O'Brien

O2 Ireland continued to gain ground in the Irish market, increasing its revenue and customer base during the first quarter of 2007.

The Irish mobile network saw its service revenue for the three months to 31 March 2007 rise 1.1 percent year-on-year to EUR224 million.

Paul Whelan, chief financial officer of O2 Ireland said the operator performed well in the first quarter.

"Our customer base increased again to reach its highest ever level of 1.633 million customers. In particular, growth in our postpay base was impressive, with 14,000 net new customers being added in the quarter," he said.

"Our postpay base has grown 13.7 percent year on year. In April 2007, O2 signed-up its 500,000th post-pay customer, marking a major milestone for the company."

Irish mobile users continued to use their handsets heavily, with 428 million text messages sent during the three-months, a 13.8 percent increase on the same period a year earlier. Although average monthly minutes of use dropped sequentially from 246 to 240, they were still up 9.1 percent compared with the same period in 2006.

Bills for some Irish customers are getting cheaper, with monthly average revenue per user (APRU) for prepay customers at EUR28, down from EUR29.60 in the previous quarter. However, post-pay customers paid an average of EUR82, a slight rise from the previous quarter's EUR81.40. This led to a monthly average blended ARPU for the quarter of EUR44.20, a dip from last quarter's EUR45.

Data revenue is becoming increasingly more important to the operator, representing 26 percent of overall service revenue in the first quarter, compared to 21.4 percent a year earlier.