Vodafone ‘shift’ to alternative revenue

By Fotis Fotinos

Telecommunications are evolving, telecommunications are changing, telecommunications are expanding. The vision for the transformation of Vodafone Greece into a “tech-com” company was presented by the President and CEO of the company, Haris Broumidis.

Mr. Broumidis’ speech made clear the effort to strengthen the company’s revenues from alternative sources, such as the ICT and IoT projects and pay-TV.

At the same time, the company will seek to expand the fiber optic network to 800,000 connections by 2025, but also the 5G population coverage, to 90%, by the same year.

Mobile and fixed telephony

In fixed telephony, as stated by the President and CEO of the company, Vodafone has reached 1 million customers, recording the highest performance to date.

Respectively, the mobile achieved a record in data traffic, which exceeded 122 petabytes. In addition, it has already upgraded more than 350,000 thousands of households and businesses to the next – and not only – available speed.

In the investments of new generation networks, as mentioned by Mr. Broumidis, the implementation of the investment program of 600 million euros is accelerated, aiming at 5G population coverage at 70% at the end of 2023 and at 90% at the end of 2025, while today it exceeds 44%.

In terms of fiber optic networks, the program aims to have 800,000 households and businesses connected at ultra-high speeds by the end of 2025.

At the same time, Vodafone announced that it has already completed, in half, the work of the submarine fiber optic cable, having carried out its landing in Crete and Dodecanese.

This is an important infrastructure project, which, when completed in mid-2023, will significantly improve the digital services of almost 1 million inhabitants.

“Vodafone Greece is very different, compared to 6-8 years ago. The company was then a mobile company, all revenue was from voice, data and messages. It made 100% sales on physical channels.

Today, the company is now a provider of mobile and fixed telephony, television, ICT in the public and private sector, we have success in the Recovery Fund and in the field of IoT “, underlined, among others, Mr. Broumidis.

“Now less than 70% of our revenue is from mobile telephony, the rest comes from fixed and new services,” he added.

“In 2016, 100% of sales were in physical channels, retail and telemarketing, today 30% of the company’s sales are made through digital channels. We want to become a technology and communications company, in the coming years 30% of revenue will come from non-connectivity services, ie from new services, such as IoT, ICT, television and products for businesses “, stressed Mr. Broumidis, analyzing the development plan of the company.

The financial performance of Vodafone Greece

In recent years, Vodafone Greece presents revenues of around 900-950 million euros and remarkable adjusted profitability, according to the annual financial statements of the Vodafone Group, although in relation to the Greek balance sheet there are some discrepancies.

According to the financial results of the financial year 2021-2022 (April 2021 – March 2022) the turnover reached 925 million euros, remaining stable, with revenues from services increasing by 3%, reaching 858 million euros from 837 million euro of the financial year 2020-2021.

“Revenues from services in Greece increased, reflecting higher roaming and visitor revenues, as international tourism increased from year to year, partly offset by lower mobile termination fees,” the Vodafone Group said in its performance in Greece. .

On the plus side is the growth of the mobile customer base, which increased by 183,000 customers and reached 4,254 million, with the company having succeeded in adding 145,000 prepaid customers and 38,000 contract subscribers, who constitute 39.3% of the subscription base.

Vodafone Greece also recorded an increase in the fixed, despite the intense competition, with the addition of 6,000 subscribers, reaching 972,000 customers, which is, as it claims, the highest performance of the company since it entered the fixed.

On the other hand, the adjusted profitability amounted to 228 million euros, recording a decrease of 55 million euros compared to last year and 76 million euros compared to the financial year 2019-20.

This reduction, according to market analysts, is attributed to the one-time payment of accumulated liabilities from previous years, but also to the reduction of monthly revenue per customer.

APRU (monthly revenue per customer) decreased at the end of the financial year, reaching 9.9 euros (from 10.4 euros last year), reduced by 4%.

According to executives in the telecommunications market, the mobile phone represents 58.9% of Vodafone’s revenue from services, being the “strong” part of the company, which – however – seeks to develop other sectors.

Respectively, Vodafone fixed telephony, which has as its customer base the “heritage” of HOL and Cyta, seems to be “pressed” more.

“Assistant” in the effort to “counterattack” in fixed telephony is the pay-TV, which, although it lost sports content, is now based on general entertainment content, as evidenced by the exclusive collaboration with DISNEY +.