O2 Ireland nets 32,000 new customers

23-01-2006

by Deirdre McArdle

Despite increased competition in the Irish mobile market, O2 Ireland amassed 32,000 new customers for the three-month period to the end of December.

The mobile operator's Key Performance Indicators for the fourth quarter of 2005, which will be O2's last before the Telefonica takeover, show that O2 Ireland is growing at a healthy pace. O2 Ireland now has a total customer base of just over 1.6 million with 25,000 of the operator's new customers signing up as pre-pay and 7,000 as contract customers.

"O2 continued to gain momentum during the last quarter with a strong performance in what has been a challenging and competitive quarter," said Paul Whelan, Chief Financial Officer with O2 Ireland, in a statement. "Over the last year, we have continued to add new customers and have shown strong growth in both our pre-pay and post-pay customer base."

Across all its operations, O2 signed up 1.75 million customers during the quarter, bringing the group's total customer base to just below 27.5 million. In the UK the firm added 895,000 customers while in Germany it clocked up 823,000 new users.

In Ireland the all-important Average Revenue per User (ARPU) figure continued to grow over the period. During the fourth quarter, ARPU in Ireland rose to EUR360 for pre-pay customers, up from EUR359 in the same period last year. ARPU for bill-pay customers in Ireland increased to EUR1,155 up from EUR1,106 in the fourth quarter of 2004, while blended ARPU increased to EUR572 up from EUR564 in the year-ago quarter.

The figures continued to confirm that Irish mobile users are a talkative bunch compared to their UK and German counterparts. The average amount UK customers spent slipped slightly to STG272 compared to the same period last year. In Germany, ARPU fell from EUR370 to EUR338 due to an "increasingly competitive market", according to the group's figures.

Data services continue to pull in money for O2's Irish mobile network. In the Irish market, data revenue now accounts for 22.3 percent of total revenue up from 20.9 percent in the same period last year.

These figures from O2 are likely to be welcome news to Telefonica shareholders. Peter Erskine, CEO of O2 was also pleased with the results: "As we approach completion of the acquisition of O2 by Telefonica, all our businesses are performing well, and we look forward to maintaining momentum as part of Telefonica."

Earlier this month the European Commission cleared Telefonica's takeover of O2. Telefonica put in a EUR20 billion offer for O2 in October 2005. O2 will retain its brand, and its headquarters will continue to be based in the UK.