O2 grows customer base

O2 made less money on each customer in the last quarter but it managed to increase its customer base by 5,400 to 1.7 million.

In the first nine months of this year 2.474 billion texts were sent by O2 customers in Ireland, up from 2.315bn in the same period last year.

Also 3.519bn voice minutes were used, up from 3.494bn in the same period last year.

Monthly average blended ARPU, which is how operators measure how much each customer spends for the first nine months of 2010 was €37.14, down from €39.67 for the same period last year.

Average spend for prepay customers was €24.32, down from €25.16 for the same period last year, while for postpay customers it was €55.33 down from €63.03.

O2 said that in the first nine months of 2010, about 84% of all texts sent by prepay customers were free, while 61% of prepay domestic voice minutes used were free.

The company said more than 160,000 customers are now signed up to its mobile broadband service, its highest ever level.

Service revenue for the third quarter was €198m, up from €193m in the second quarter but down from €213m for the same period last year.

The company said that data revenue continues to grow, driven by the increase in non-SMS revenues, which account for 12.4% of overall service revenues in quarter three, up from 10.4% on the same period last year.

O2 said this growth is being driven largely by the increased adoption of O2 Mobile Broadband and smartphones.

Chief financial officer with Telefónica O2, Paul Whelan said: “We continue to see our customers using more data services, reflecting the growing importance of smartphones and mobile devices to access the internet on the move.”

This week Vodafone announced that has 2.18m mobile phone customers in Ireland.