Profits hit £1.781 billion, as EE becomes the first mobile operator in Europe to hit 4G milestone
EE’s profits surged 12.1 per cent annually in Q4 as it met its target of 14 million 45G customers by the year end.
Reporting its financial results for the final three months of 2015, the mobile operator posted profits of £1.781 billion, while operating revenue was broadly flat at £6 billion.
It became the first European operator to surpass 14 million 4G customers with the addition of 1.4 million users in the quarter, with the total base almost doubling 2015.
EE’s 4G network now covers 95 per cent of the UK population, with double speed 4G reaching 80 per cent.
The network added 141,000 contract customers in the three month period, with this base rising 2.9 per cent year-on-year to reach 15.4 million. contract churn fell marginally from a year ago to 1.1 per cent.
However, EE lost 152,000 prepay customers (-7.6 per cent from a year ago) with this base standing at 8.5 million users. In total, EE’s total network connections grew 1.8 per cent to 31.5 million users.
Contract ARPU fell 4.2 per cent to £27.50, while the same figure for prepay also decreased 4.4 per cent to £4.30.
Elsewhere, EE’s corporate customer base has grown by almost a third to 9,100 accounts. In the quarter, the Government awarded it the Emergency Services Network contract with the aim of improving the communications capability of the police, ambulance and fire brigade.
EE CEO Marc Allera said: “2015 was an exceptional year for EE, as we met and exceeded 4G targets, won multiple awards for our network performance, and improved our customer satisfaction scores.
“As part of BT, we’re entering the next chapter of EE’s journey, and look forward to a phenomenal opportunity to innovate for the benefit of our customers, while continuing to build and enhance the UK’s digital infrastructure.”
