Strong turnover thanks to postpaid and data growth

Telefónica Germany has 20.4 million customers for mobile communications and DSL, which corresponds to an increase of 9.0 per cent year-on-year. In the mobile communications sector the number of new customers grew by 27 per cent compared to the previous quarter to almost 391,000. Above all the turnover-strong postpaid segment grew vigorously. New customer numbers rose by 211 per cent compared to the previous year; compared to the first quarter they increased by 22 per cent. The O₂ core brand with its attractive portfolio in particular contributed to this development. Despite the stagnating DSL market Telefónica Germany won 30,000 new fix-net customers between April and June. The high level of satisfaction amongst O₂ customers is confirmed by the low migration rate especially in the postpaid segment of the core brand O₂. This is particularly remarkable, because O₂ is the only provider which relies on contracts without a fixed term and these customers could change monthly. In addition, the number of new customers in the prepaid segment has grown by 36 per cent since the first quarter. Growth at the Fonic discount subsidiary in particular contributed to this. It welcomed its two millionth customer in May.

"Our strategy of betting fully on smartphone tariffs with attractive voice and data offerings has paid off handsomely: in just eight months over a million customers booked one of our O₂ Blue smartphone tariffs," says to CEO René Schuster. "This is the most successful postpaid product launch ever at Telefónica Germany." The result has been notably influenced by the strong growth in the mobile data business: In the second quarter it once again raced ahead. Data turnover without SMS soared by 65.2 per cent year-on-year or about 16.5 per cent compared to the previous quarter. O₂ has positioned itself ideally in the smartphone sector and is continuously expanding its pioneering position in this attractive new market. The number of mobile Internet users also grew by 51.8 per cent year-on-year.

Strong smartphone usage and customer growth led to mobile communications turnover rising by 3.7 per cent compared to the previous year. "As a result, the halving of the mobile communications termination fee has been offset", André Krause, CFO Telefónica Germany. "The slashing of these fees in December 2010 has weighed on income since then. Without this cut mobile communications turnover would have grown by 10.0 per cent year-on-year". Overall turnover grew by 1.3 per cent. Quarterly consolidated operating income (OIBDA) grew by 14.1 per cent compared to the preceding quarter. Compared to the previous year it was up by 2.1 per cent. Since the first quarter the OIBDA margin rose from 21.2 to 24.5 per cent. Average monthly turnover is developing positively since many quarters: from April to June it rose by 47 cents to 13.6 Euros. The development of the data ARPU without SMS was especially impressive. It surged by 51.4 per cent compared to the previous quarter (from 1.9 to 2.9 Euros) and compensated for the renewed decline in the voice ARPU.