EE UK Home Broadband ISP Subscribers See Sharp Fall to 693000

Telecoms operator EE has released its latest financial results to Q4-2012 and revealed that their fixed line Home Broadband subscriber base has suddenly declined to a total of 693,000 (down by -29,000 during Q4). The figure represents a shock fall and relates directly to the ending of Orange UK’s free broadband deal last year.

The operator, which had only recently returned to growth after adding +1,000 fixed broadband customers during Q2-2012 and +9,000 in Q3-2012, effectively scrapped its old “FREE broadband FOR LIFE” deal for long-time mobile customers during October last year (here).

At the time customers were told that they could keep the free service but only if they took EE’s line rental solution too and we now know that many simply chose to switch ISP. Never the less EE still reported 11% year-on-year revenue growth for its fixed broadband services, which suggests that the “free” service was naturally quite costly to support.

Olaf Swantee, CEO of EE, said:

“In the past year, we delivered solid financial performance, underpinned by good progress integrating the business and success in attracting high value customers. At the same time, we built a strong platform for growth, launching a new company, new network, new customer brand, new retail estate and being the first to provide UK consumers and businesses with 4G mobile services alongside fibre broadband.”

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)

As you’d expect EE’s primary focus remains its mobile network and the on-going deployment of 4G based Mobile Broadband services to most of the country. Overall the operator recorded service revenue of £5,953m in Q4-2012 (down 2.6% from a year earlier and 3.9% in the quarter) and EBITDA of £1,410m (down 0.4% from last year).