First Half Results Reveal Everything Everywhere Losses
Operator sees losses thanks to the Orange and T-Mobile network merger but says it’s on track to save £3.5bn by 2014 with closer integration
Everything Everywhere has reported £110 million pre-tax losses for the first six months of this year, more than double the £39 million it lost in the first two quarters last year.
However, the UK’s largest mobile operator in terms of subscribers remains optimistic about the future, saying it is on track to deliver £3.5 billion in savings by 2014 through further integration of its T-Mobile and Orange brands.
Everything Everywhere was formed in 2010 following the merger of the two previously independent networks and is jointly owned by France Telecom and Deutsche Telekom.
Six month losses
“In the first half, we delivered a solid commercial performance, with good underlying revenue growth,” said Olaf Swantee, CEO of Everything Everywhere. “We are making strong progress integrating the legacy Orange and T-Mobile businesses to create cost efficiencies and deliver planned synergy targets, while investing in significant network upgrades to further improve our customer experience.”
The company recently announced the completion of its Smart Signal Project, which allows customers of both T-Mobile and Orange to access a 3G signal on either network, in what has been described as the “biggest of its kind.”
As part of the integration, 1,300 redundant sites have been switched off and 30 overlapping stores have been shut down. There are also plans to reduce head office property, integrate key IT systems and consolidate warehouses and handset supply change.
Half of Everything Everywhere’s customers are on pay monthly payment plans, which it says generates five times as much revenue as pay-as-you-go plans. Around 72 percent of pay monthly customers own smartphones and are using increasing amounts of data, a trend which will allow the operator to grow in the future.
Central to these plans is likely to be the rollout of a 4G network. Ofcom revealed that the bidding process for additional spectrum will begin later this year, but the watchdog has given Everything Everywhere provisional approval to operate Long Term Evolution services on its existing spectrum.
“Everything Everywhere is committed to bringing 4G to the UK this year, and the next milestone will be the regulator’s response to our request to roll out 4G over our existing 1800MHz spectrum without further delay,” a spokesperson told TechWeekEurope yesterday.
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