Telefonica O2 UK

Telefonica O2 UK outperformed competitors in 2009 in a declining mobile market, maintaining a strong market momentum driven by smartphones, also delivering a remarkable non-P2P SMS revenue performance.

The Company’s total mobile customer base (excluding Tesco Mobile) at the end of December 2009 reached 21.3 million lines, up 5.1% year-on-year, with net customer additions of 1.0 million in the year (338,455 in the fourth quarter), sustaining its leadership in the UK market. The contract segment continued driving growth, adding 1.1 million customers in 2009 (+18.6% year-on-year), and 235,486 customers in the fourth quarter (+5.6% year-on-year). The contract segment made up 44.9% of the total customer base at the end of December 2009 (41.5% a year ago). This positive evolution was mainly due to churn reduction and increased commercial activity on a wide range of devices, with a particular focus on smartphones. ‘Simplicity’ propositions and prepay to contract migrations also contributed to growth in this segment in the year.

Churn in the contract segment sustained its solid evolution, decreasing to a low record level of 1.0% in the fourth quarter (-0.2 percentage points year-on-year and over the previous quarter). The contract churn in 2009, at 1.1%, was 0.1 percentage points lower than in the previous year. Total churn in 2009 remained stable over the previous year, at 2.6%, showing a 0.1 percentage point year-on-year improvement in the fourth quarter.

In terms of usage, traffic in 2009 grew 15.6% year-on-year to 53,856 million minutes (+15.4% year-on-year in the fourth quarter). This performance is explained by contract customer base increase, coupled with continued utilisation of their voice bundle, as well as the higher year-on-year usage of voice packages from prepay customers due to the adoption of tariffs such as ‘Unlimited’.

Voice ARPU in 2009 decreased 8.7% year-on-year in local currency to 15.5 euros (-10.5% in the fourth quarter), mainly due to mobile termination rate cuts (from August), continued usage optimisation from customers, and the increasing number of non-voice accesses and ‘Simplicity’ tariffs in the base. Data ARPU increased 3.7% year-on-year in local currency in 2009 to reach 9.3 euros (+6.2% in the fourth quarter), with the strong contribution from data package sales compensating year-on-year declines in SMS related revenues.

As a result, Telefonica O2 UK’s total ARPU for 2009 showed a 4.4% year-on-year decline in local currency to 24.7 euros (-4.5% year-on-year in local currency in the fourth quarter).

Telefonica O2 UK’s DSL broadband service added 250,648 lines in 2009, reaching 591,514 lines at the end of December (+73.5% year-on-year). In the fourth quarter, 64,388 lines were added, ahead of the ‘O2 Home Phone’ service to be launched by Spring 2010, which will enhance the O2 fixed broadband proposition with a very competitive voice package.

Telefonica O2 UK had a strong financial performance in 2009, growing revenues in 2009 by 3.5%, year-on-year, in local currency (+1.2% in the fourth quarter) to reach 6,512 million euros, clearly outperforming the UK mobile market.

The strong year-on-year performance of mobile service revenues in 2009 is worth highlighting. In local currency terms, and excluding the impact from mobile termination rate cuts[1], year-on-year growth accelerated from 6.1% in the third quarter to 8.2% in the fourth quarter, reaching 5,936 million euros in 2009 (+3.1% year-on-year growth in local currency; +6.4% excluding mobile termination rate cuts3). The main factors driving mobile service revenues in 2009 were the year-on-year increase in the contract segment and continued growth in non-P2P SMS data revenues (+49.7% year-on-year in local currency in the fourth quarter; +52.0% in 2009) on the back of an increased usage of mobile Internet.

Operating income before depreciation and amortization (OIBDA) totalled 1,680 million euros in 2009, a 2.3% year-on-year growth in local currency. Excluding the impacts from restructuring charges booked in the third quarter, OIBDA would have grown by 4.0% year-on-year, exceeding revenue growth. In the fourth quarter, OIBDA grew 4.2% year-on-year in local currency, predominantly driven by additional efficiencies, fuelling increased commercial activity, mainly in the contract segment, as well as targeted customer retention activities, which are helping to deliver market leading churn.

As a result, reported OIBDA margin for 2009 was 25.8% (-0.3 percentage points year-on-year), with a year-on-year improvement of 0.8 percentage points in the fourth quarter to 28.1%. Excluding restructuring charges, OIBDA margin in 2009 would have remained broadly stable over the previous year.

Operating cash flow (OIBDA-CapEx) for 2009 totalled 1,078 million euros, a year-on-year increase of 7.7% in local currency (+10.5% year-on-year growth excluding restructuring costs), on the back of the already mentioned OIBDA performance and a 6.0% year-on-year decrease of CapEx in local currency, totalling 602 million euros despite higher network investment to deliver coverage and quality improvements.



[1] Impacts from termination rate cuts (August, 2009) in mobile service revenue growth (year-on-year, local currency) were 3.3 and 6.5 percentage points in the year and in the fourth quarter, respectively.

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