O2 up their revenues 10 per cent

O2’s revenues are up 10 per cent year on year to £6.26 million, naming the iPhone, BlackBerry and Simplicity as leading products. Traditional ARPU is down two per cent while data ARPU has risen nine per cent.

Net mobile additions in the year reached 1.1 million, up 45 per cent year on year and ending December 2008 with a total mobile base of 19.5 million lines, excluding Tesco Mobile. Contract customers make up 39.1 per cent of the total base, up two per cent from last year. The company attributed this growth to propositions such as Simplicity SIM only packages, the 3G iPhone and mobile broadband. The network said it has sold one million iPhones since the device's launch.

Prepay customer numbers grew 82.7 per cent to reach 11.9 million, drawn by offers such as prepay mobile broadband and the prepay iPhone. O2 recorded total churn of 2.7 per cent, down from 2.9 per cent in 2007.

Total ARPU last year was £26.66, recording a 1.4 per cent year-on-year growth, however, Q4 saw a decline of 1.7 per cent

Contract ARPU showed a year-on-year decline of 2.1 per cent as, ironically, customers are more frequently choosing value deals such as Simplicity and scrutinising their usage. Prepay ARPU for the year declined 0.6 per cent from 2007, reflecting the increased uptake of prepay tariffs such as Unlimited.

However, this was compensated for by the 9.2 per cent rise in data to £10.17, driven by mobile broadband and data bolt-ons.

The network’s DSL broadband service added 270,157 lines in 2008, with its total broadband customer base at 340,866 lines at the end of December.

Telefonica Europe chief executive Matthew Key said: “While our results appear to be bucking economic trends, we remain concerned about the current trading environment which has resulted in an overall smaller market. In times like these, execution becomes even more critical in offering customers services and propositions that they value.”