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Operators
March 25, 2019
The operator is planning 5G rollout for second half of 2019
Three has revealed its total revenue has grown by one per cent to £2.4 billion as the operator announced its full financials for 2018.
The operator released its financials today (March 21) and broke down its key highlights of the past year, plus gave an update on its 5G rollout, expected in the second half of this year.
Three also grew EBITDA by seven per cent to £752 million, with total margin up one per cent to £1.5 billion due to increased connections base and CAPEX of £462 million, again a one per cent rise from 2017.
According to YouGov data Three also posted a record high Net Promoter Score of +15, which compares to the industry average of -6.
Its customer base exceeded 11.3 million network connections, with over 10 million active Three customers. In total 84 per cent of its customer base is on 4G, with 79 per cent of total data usage coming from this network.
Total contract numbers edged up by one per cent to seven million, with contract handset churn at lowest ever level at 1.1 per cent says the operator.
5G Push
Three CEO Dave Dyson described the figures as “encouraging” and is confident ahead of Three’s 5G launch later in the year.
The operator has invested £2 billion on what it says will be the UK’s fastest 5G network, after it acquired 20MHz of 3.4GHz spectrum during 2018 at the 5G spectrum auction.
“We have smaller scale 5G trials planned over the coming months to make sure that when we launch 5G we can deliver the best experience,” said Dyson.
“UK consumers have an insatiable appetite for data and 5G is the key to delivering on that demand in a quality and cost-effective way.”
Three customers also consume the most amount of data, as data usage grew 22 per cent to 8.3GB per month.
There was also growth for Three’s MVNO strategy, with Superdrug Mobile launched and Three’s largest MVNO, iD Mobile closing in on a million connections, with an estimated 975,000 as of now.
“During the year we supported the launch of a new brand – Superdrug Mobile – and existing brands, iD Mobile and SMARTY, continued to grow, broadening our customer base and diversifying our revenue streams,” added Dyson.