A million sales of Apple's
iPhone helped
Telefónica's O2 mobile network
outperform its UK rivals, the company revealed today.
Matthew Key, chairman and chief executive of Telefónica Europe,
said O2's UK business showed 10% year-on-year growth, with net
mobile additions in the year up 45.3% to 1,087,866.
"In the fourth quarter we added 499,000 fixed and mobile
customers, and ended 2008 with a total customer base approaching 22
million, including Tesco Mobile," he said. This represents growth
of 7.5% year-on-year.
Telefónica O2 UK's total average revenue per user (ARPU) rose
slightly to €30 in 2008.
"Data ARPU had a very strong performance in 2008, with a
year-on-year increase in local currency of 9.2% to €10.3," Kay
said.
This was driven mainly by an increase of 270,157 in the number
of mobile broadband connections, putting the total broadband
customer base at 340,866. Non-SMS data revenues increased 55.4%
year-on-year in sterling in the year, he said.
Kay said Telefonica's total customer base was up 9% to 46
million. This pushed sales up 5.9% to a shade over €7bn.