The latest Q1-2013 financial results from EE (Orange UK and T-Mobile) have revealed that their fixed line Home Broadband subscriber base increased by just +1,000 in the quarter to total 694,000, while their 4G (LTE) based mobile subscribers grew from zero to 318,000 in the first five months since its launch.
However the slow rise in Home Broadband subscribers could potentially be masking a much more positive position. EE had previously added +9,000 new customers in Q3-2012 but it saw this plummet by -29,000 during Q4-2012, which followed the controversial scrapping of their old “FREE broadband FOR LIFE” deal in October 2012 (here).
But by forcing the most economically unsustainable customers off their platform, or on to their own line rental service, then EE might now expect to see stronger growth from this point onwards. At least it will if they can drag themselves away from their old (Orange UK) reputation for slow speeds and poor support.
Neal Milsom, EE’s CFO, said:
“Today’s results are in-line with our expectations, and we are making good progress focusing on high value segments. We’re announcing 318,000 4G customers after just five months of trading, strong postpaid net adds and continued growth in our underlying average revenue per user. We expect to strengthen our industry leadership position in the year ahead as the 4G roll out continues and we introduce double-speed 4GEE.”
History of EE’s Home Broadband Subscriber Base
Q3-2007 1,142,000 (Highest Point)
Q3-2010 795,000 (-347,000)
Q4-2010 770,000 (-25,000)
Q1-2011 726,000 (-44,000)
Q2-2011 716,000 (-10,000)
Q3-2011 713,000 (-3,000)
Q4-2011 713,000 (0)
Q1-2012 713,000 (0)
Q2-2012 714,000 (+1,000)
Q3-2012 723,000 (+9,000)
Q4-2012 693,000 (-29,000)
Q1-2013 694,000 (+1,000)
Despite the Home Broadband improvement it’s important to remember that EE’s primary focus will remain the expansion and improvement of their new 4G based mobile phone and mobile broadband platform, which is set to reach 70% of the UK population by the end of this year and 98% by the end of 2014. EE also recently announced work to double their 4G speeds (here).
Overall the operator recorded service revenue of £1,422m in Q1-2013 (£5,953m in Q4-2012). Financials were down following EE’s acquisition of 2x5MHz of 800MHz and 2x35MHz of 2.6GHz spectrum for £589m from Ofcom’s recent 4G auction.
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