MADRID: Vodafone Spain reported service revenues down 3.2 percent on an organic basis in its fiscal third quarter to March following falls of 3.1 percent and 2.0 percent in the previous two quarters, with the strong performance of its fixed line business offset by the continuing slowdown in mobile, above all the impact of handset financing. However, the operator was keen to emphasise that EBITDA accelerated 4.2 percent year-on-year with a 1.3 percentage point increase in the EBITDA margin, thanks to cost controls and the greater-than-expected synergies from its acquisition of broadband operator Ono.
Total mobile service revenues fell 8.0 percent in the first three months of the year even though the customer base grew to 14.32 million from 14.18 million in the year-earlier quarter, with contract customers now representing 78.7 percent of the base. The company said it was seeing signs that ARPU is beginning to stabilise, coming in at EUR 16.0 compared to EUR 16.9 a year ago, aided bu its ‘more-for-more’ pricing strategy, in which customers receive higher data allowances and additional features such as free European roaming in exchange for an increase in the monthly tariff. The operator’s 4G coverage reached 91 percent of the Spanish population at 31 March, with the 4G customer base rising to 5.4 million.
Vodafone’s fixed line performance was again helped by the successful integration of Ono, posting a 7.8 percent year-on-year revenue rise, supported by consistent growth in broadband net additions. Total fixed broadband customers passed the 3 million milestone for the first time, reaching 3.02 million compared to 2.81 million a year ago. Around half the broadband customers – 1.5 million – had subscribed to the Vodafone One converged service launched a year ago. Vodafone’s high-speed fibre or cable service now reaches 8.5 million Spanish households thanks to its joint fibre network build with Orange.
