Vodafone Spain’s service revenues (those that strictly affect operations) fell by 4.5%, to 1,782 million during the company’s first fiscal semester, which runs from April to September. The teleco manages to keep the operating profit (ebitda) slightly positive, 0.2% due to the reduction in the tax burden derived from a favorable judicial resolution, according to the information communicated to the market this Tuesday.
The strong growth of the low cost market in Spain, a drop in the number of customers and the reduction in mobile termination rates are the reasons with which the operator of British origin explains the evolution of the business in this period. In it, it was also able to partially compensate these falls with the increase in income from tourists, international roaming.
In addition, they explain from Vodafone, the slowdown in the interannual evolution between the first and second quarters was largely due to the update of the rates carried out during the second quarter of the previous fiscal year, as well as by a better first quarter in revenues from public administrations and lower wholesale income.
Total income fell by 6%, to 1,965 million, “due to the aggressiveness of the market and the reduction in terminal sales,” explains the ‘teleco’ in a statement.
As for the commercial evolution, the activity continued to be impacted by the strong low-cost competition in the Spanish market. Contract customers were reduced by 26,000, due to 123,000 disconnections (from temporary SIMs provided to education providers and schools during the pandemic) carried out as a transparency measure. Excluding this effect, the customer base would have grown by 97,000.
The broadband customer base fell by 40,000, reaching positive net additions in September. The customer service initiatives launched by the company helped reduce the transfer of fixed broadband customers by -4.8 percentage points. The TV customer base was reduced by 10,000. Likewise, convergent clients increased by 7,000 to more than 2.2 million.
For its part, the mobile customers of Lowi, the company’s low-cost segment brand, increased by 152,000 during the period, following the expansion of its distribution channels, reaching 1.7 million customers.
During the first half of the year, Vodafone continued to roll out 5G technology in more than 1,000 municipalities. In addition, new business channels were launched, such as Vodafone Energy and new, clearer rates for individuals with no surprises, with the aim of improving customer loyalty.
Likewise, Vodafone incorporated 200 employees in its European R&D center in Malaga, out of the more than 600 highly qualified positions planned. With regard to products and services for individuals, the operator began to offer the SmartBank League football matches, extended the Vodafone Care insurance to smartwatches and tablets, which already covers 5.4 million fixed and mobile lines with its security service digitalSecureNet.
