Vodafone sees progress in converged services

Vodafone had 9.4 million TV customers at the end of its financial full year, out of a total of 13.4 million fixed broadband customers.

Just over half – 51% – of the company’s customers took a high-speed broadband service at the end of March.

Vodafone said that 1.5 million customers had subscribed to its Vodafone One converged offering in Spain, which combines mobile telephony with broadband and TV on the former Ono network, at the end of the quarter. The company said that, combining the Ono network with its fibre joint build-out with Orange, it now reached 8.5 million premises in Spain with fibre or cable.

Vodafone’s equivalent offering in Germany – Vodafone Red One – combining mobile telephony with high-speed broadband and TV on the former Kabel Deutschland cable network, which was launched in November, had attracted 54,000 customers by the end of the period.

Vodafone said its long-delayed UK TV offering was in “field trials” with “plans to launch later in the current calendar year”. Vodafone also plans to launch TV in Italy this year.

Overall, Vodafone added 414,000 fixed broadband customers in the course of the year, and added 426,000 to its next-generation broadband networks. Some 21% of the company’s revenues now come from its fixed network activities.

Vodafone posted revenue of £40.97 billion (€52 billion) for the year, up 2.3% on an organic basis and down 3% on a reported basis, with EBITDA of £11.61 billion, up 2.7% on an organic basis and down 2.5% on a reported basis.

In Germany, service revenue fell by 0.4% for the year, but returned to growth in the fourth quarter, with fixed revenue growing by 1.5% for the year, with continued strong growth in cable and a decline in ADSL.

In Spain, service revenue fell by 3.5%, driven lower by mobile which the company nevertheless said was “recovering steadily”. Fixed revenue grew 7.8%.