Internet and mobile operator EE has today published their latest results for Q3-2014, which saw fixed line home broadband subscribers grow at a slightly slower pace to top 793,000 customers (up +18k in Q3, which is down from +30k in Q2 and level with +19k in Q1). Meanwhile their 4G (LTE) users grew +1.4 million to top 5.6m (roughly level with Q2 growth).
It’s likely that the previous fixed broadband growth peak in Q2, which occurred during a period where most other ISPs were suffering a slowdown due to the seasonal movement of students, was as a result of their recent package refresh that targeted the wider market instead of just EE’s existing mobile subscribers (here). In that sense, the addition of +18k in Q3 might thus represent a return to EE’s new normality; time will tell.
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But it will also be interesting to see if the recent launch of EE’s new TV (SmartBox IPTV) service for home broadband customers can have any impact upon their growth (here). At the time of writing the EE TV service is still not available to order (you can only pre-register your interest) and until that changes the impact on future results will remain zero.
Elsewhere it’s interesting to note that EE’s so-called “double speed” boost for 4G (LTE) based Mobile Broadband customers is set to be expanded to reach a total of 40 cities, which is up from 20 today. Existing double speed cities include: Belfast, Birmingham, Bristol, Cardiff, Derby, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Leeds, Liverpool, London, Manchester, Newcastle, Nottingham, Sheffield, Southampton, Sunderland, Sutton Coldfield, Walsall, West Bromwich and Wolverhampton. Sadly they don’t list the new cities.
EE’s Network and Company Update
Our three year £1.5bn network investment programme, including £275m each year from 2012 to 2014 to focus on voice coverage, is delivering results. In August, Ofcom announced that EE had the highest call success rate across the UK at 97% and was also best in rural areas, with 93.7% success rate.
We are making further improvements in coverage, including being the first and only UK operator to announce seamless WiFi calling on major new devices including the iPhone 6. We are investing in rural coverage improvements, upgrading 2G equipment and installing new 4G equipment in rural areas to rollout voice over 4G (VoLTE) using 800 MHz spectrum next year. We are this year extending our unique double speed 4G service to 40 of the UK’s busiest cities, and were the first UK operator to roll out LTE-Advanced, demonstrating speeds up to 300 Mbps in Tech City, London – ahead of a city-wide launch.
We are maintaining our focus on further improving customer service. In the quarter, we acquired 58 retail stores from Phones 4u, extending our retail footprint into new areas to strengthen our direct sales presence. We have also opened new customer service centres in Derby and Londonderry/Derry as part of our programme to on-shore 1,000 customer service roles to the UK by early 2016.
In addition, a spokesperson for EE recently suggested to ISPreview.co.uk that their new 300Mbps 4G (LTE-Advanced) technology would exit the trial stage before the end of October 2014 (here) and we’re anticipating an official announcement in the not too distant future.
On the financial front EE’s quarterly turnover hit £1,591m in Q3 (up from £1,566m in Q2) and their related operating revenue stood at £1,523m (up from £1,505m).
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