Posted: 07th Feb, 2012 By: MarkJ
Internet and phone provider TalkTalk ( AOL UK ) has today released its latest results to 31st December 2011 (Q4). Sadly the data shows that the ISP suffered
another sharp decline in broadband subscribers (
-43,000) to reach a new total of
4,079,000.
However, despite showing a loss that is exactly equal to their previous Q3-2011 decline, TalkTalk still remains "
confident" of a
return to growth during the first half of calendar year 2012. In fact this might hold true because the ISP plans to launch a revamped mobile service and their new
TalkTalk TV ( YouView / IPTV ) product within the same period.
Dido Harding, CEO of TalkTalk, said:
"As a result of the success of our unbundling programme, ARPU growth and earlier than expected delivery of cost savings, we are raising full year EBITDA and EPS guidance.
We have continued to improve our customers’ experience with further falls in customer service call volumes and an increase in the rate of online self-service. As a result, churn has stabilised and we remain confident of a return to positive total net adds in the first half of 2012.
Our operational achievements and strong financial performance give us confidence as we look ahead to delivering an exciting strategic agenda through 2012, including the launch of our TV proposition."
It should be said that all of the declines appear to have come from their shared
SMPF unbundled ( LLU ) and BT based broadband lines, while their cheaper fully
MPF unbundled platform actually added +63,000. This is due to both migrations from the other two platforms and new customer additions.
Broadband revenues also managed to increase from £307m in the previous quarter to £312m now. This comes from a mix of migrations onto their cheaper fully unbundled platform and higher
Average Revenue Per User (ARPU), which over the past quarter has jumped from £18.1 to £18.8 per month.
Overall we expect the next quarter's (Q1-2012) results, at least in terms of broadband subscribers, to remain negative but, provided TalkTalk's new services launch as planned and their Ofcom reported complaint levels continue to fall, then 2012 could end up being a far better year.