More financials: O2UK subs up, revenues down in group

O2UK recently posted financials showing that it has added 275K customers in the last quarter of this year, bringing it’s subscriber base to an impressive 18.7mn – however Telefonica (NYSE: TEF) (the owner of the group) has at the same time shown a 48% decrease in revenues….

The addition of 138K contract customers has been largely attributed to the iPhone, giving a result that contract subs are now 38% of the total base. Interestingly, O2 (NYSE: TEF) also cites that Prepay subs have also gone contract since the launch of it’s “simplicity” tariff, which has no device, but is a lot cheaper per month.

I would imagine that on the face of things, O2 have got to be happy with these, stats, especially combined with the low churn rates that they have – however, as a component of Telefonica, that’s not the whole picture – Telefonica reported a 48% drop in year on year operating income.

So it’s a mixed bit of news – some good, some bad. But you can but all of the OpCo groups in Telefonica will be especially focussing on maintaining and boosting ARPU, whilst giving special attention to customer retention. That could spell good news for those whose contracts are ending soon – don’t forget to bargain!

[Via: Mobile News International]