VMO2 mobile contract base takes a 74,500 Q1 hit from falling handset sales and legacy disconnections

Virgin Media O2’s ‘s contract mobile base reduced by 74,500 for the first three months of the year ending Q1 at 16.0 million.

Total mobile connections grew to 45.1 million from growth in IoT and wholesale MVNO connections incuding Sky Mobile and Tesco Mobile.

The contract base dip was caused by reduction in handset sales and disconnections related to the decommissioning of a legacy billing system. Q1 O2 monthly contract churn remained stable at 1.2 per cent

Virgin Media O2’s total mobile connections of contract and prepaid now stand at 23.5m.

VMO2 says 5G  now available to more than 50 per cent of the UK population with 5G Standalone switched on in 14 cities

Lutz Schu?ler, CEO of Virgin Media O2, said:

“While there is much to do in the remainder of the year, we are gathering momentum in accelerating fibre build and marketing the nexfibre footprint, launching new services to enhance and improve customer experience, and progressing wider IT efficiency programmes as we continue our digital transformation.

“Ahead of price rise implementation, we delivered improved service revenue growth across both mobile and consumer fixed. Our teams also continue to innovate as shown by the targeted launch of 5G Standalone and a new 2Gbps broadband service on the nexfibre network in Q1, highlighting the future evolution of our networks as demand rises and new technologies emerge.

“Our performance in Q1 sets the foundations for our full year guidance as we make key investments to support future growth”.