2006: Customers voted for T-Mobile
Public 01.03.2007 in category Press News / Financial and Operational
- The mark of 5 million customers surpassed
- The number of new customers increased by more than 50% year-on-year
- Excellent financial results - growth in revenues and EBITDA
- Favorable tariff plans, innovative services, added value
Prague, 1 March 2007 - The year 2006 was one of the most interesting periods in the Czech telecommunication market. Other international players entered the country and number portability was launched. The European Commission started to exert intense regulatory pressure on telecommunication markets. T-Mobile handled all this with honor: the Company introduced a number of new services, achieved a positive balance in number porting and celebrated its tenth anniversary by becoming the largest Czech mobile operator with over five million customers. T-Mobile currently reports the highest number of active SIM cards. Out of the total of 5.049 million customers, 1.8 million (36%) are contract customers. Total customer additions constituted the impressive total of 415,000. And financial results were also positive: the intensive effort to further increase efficiency helped improve the key financial indicators such as revenue growth (higher by 5.8%) and EBITDA (higher by 4.2%). The ARPU indicator also increased, by 2%, to CZK 492.
"We highly value our success, especially given the fact that we managed to maintain a very positive trend in the market where penetration reached 120 percent," says Roland Mahler, Managing Director of T-Mobile, adding: "We do not want to rest on our laurels, though. The way towards further value growth must be based on further increasing the quality of our products and customer care, and on closely and continually monitoring the needs of the different customer segments. This is the only way to gain the long-term confidence and loyalty of our customers. And these qualities will be among the key factors for successful performance in future."
CustomersIn comparison with 2005, the number of T-Mobile's customers increased by 9% to the current 5.049 million. T-Mobile further strengthened its position in the contract customer segment. The number of contract customers is 1.809 million, which accounts for nearly 36% of the customer base. Customers using the Twist prepaid services numbered 3.24 million at the end of last year.
T-Mobile experienced the biggest enlargement of its customer base in the fourth quarter when it was in the home stretch with its Christmas offer of unlimited calls and SMS, gaining 226,000 new customers. T-Mobile registered customer additions of more than 415,000 for 2006, which represents a year-on-year increase of 51.2%.
The operator was also successful in terms of number porting, which started on 15 January 2006. The number of customers who decided to port their number to the T-Mobile network outweighed by nearly 5,000 the number of those who switched to another operator. Customers who left T-Mobile last year were mostly customers using pre-paid services while those who joined T-Mobile mostly chose a contractual relationship. This is fully in line with the Company's overall strategy, which is to further strengthen the contract customer segment. More than half of the numbers ported to the T-Mobile network belong to business clients.
The business customers that T-Mobile gained in 2006 included the Apostolic Church, ATLANTIK financni trhy, a.s., C. S. CARGO, a.s., Czech Radio, ETA, a.s., FIAT CR, spol. s r.o, Gumarny Zubri, a.s., Haas Fertigbau, spol. s r.o., Karosa, a.s., Kongresove centrum Praha, a.s, Lasselberger, a.s., Plzensky Prazdroj, a. s., RWE Energy Customer Services CZ, a.s. and the Management of Prague Castle.
Financial Results
T-Mobile achieved very good financial results in 2006: total revenues exceeded CZK 29.5 billion, net profit approached CZK 5.4 billion and the important EBITDA (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization) indicator rose by 4.2% compared with 2005, to CZK 12.7 billion. The achieved figures reflect both the enlargement of the customer base as well as the more intensive use of mobile services and T-Mobile's maximum effort to further enhance its operational excellence.
Services
In 2006, T-Mobile continued its strategy focused on the development of non-voice services and value-added services that are beginning to play an increasingly significant role. The Company continued to increase the availability of fast data transmission - the EDGE network currently covers more than 80% of the population. The Internet 4G services, which are considered capable of providing the fastest wireless access to the internet, are now also available outside of Prague. The UMTS TDD network, which allows operation of Internet 4G, now covers 50% of the population. The volume of transmitted data increased by more than 60% year-on-year.
T-Mobile plans to continue to provide services that bring something new and extend the possibilities of using mobile phones. In addition to corporate applications, such as remote data collection and property protection, T-Mobile has focused on the preparation of the commercial launch of "TV in Your Pocket". At the end of last year, the service was the subject of pilot testing with positive results. Nevertheless, the legal preconditions for the commercial launch of the service have not been met yet.
In the field of "classic" tariff plans, T-Mobile placed great emphasis on roaming. Last year, it introduced and later enhanced a new roaming add-on, Cestovatel (Traveler), which currently offers the best rates in the most popular destinations. The BAV SE service, intended for children and young people aged 6 to 26, also proved very successful.
"More and more customers now understand that the mobile network can fully replace fixed-line services, whether voice or data services," says Roland Mahler. "A mobile phone thus becomes a multimedia assistant, friend and guide thanks to which you are closer to your loved ones and to all things that make your life better."
2006 in figures
| 2006 | 2005 | Change (%) | |
| Penetration (%) | 119.7 | 111.2 | 7.6 |
| Number of customers (`000) | 5,049 | 4,634 | 9.0 |
| Contract customers | 1,809 | 1,288 | 40.5 |
| Twist customers | 3,240 | 3,347 | (3.2) |
| New customers(`000) | 415 | 274 | 51.2 |
| Contract customers | 522 | 183 | 185.1 |
| Twist zakaznici | -106 | 91 | n.a. |
| Total revenues (CZK million) | 29,548 | 27,915 | 5.8 |
| ARPU revenues (including visitors) | 28,075 | 25,841 | 8.6 |
| EBITDA (CZK million) | 12,746 | 12,232 | 4.2 |
| EBITDA margin - total revenues (%) | 43.1 | 43.7 | (0.6p) |
| EBITDA margin - ARPU revenues (%) | 45.4 | 47.2 | (1.8p) |
| Net profit (CZK million) | 5,365 | 4,967 | 8.0 |
| ARPU including visitors (CZK) | 492 | 482 | 2.0 |
| Share of non-voice services in ARPU (%)) | 21.1 | 21.4 | (0.3p) |
Presentation from press conference is available here.
About the Company
T-Mobile Czech Republic has been operating in the Czech market since 1996. As of 30 September 2011, almost 5.4 million customers were using T-Mobile services.
T-Mobile operates a public mobile communications network on the GSM and UMTS standards. Since 1 January 2008, T-Mobile has been offering fixed data and voice telecommunications services. In 2009, T-Mobile extended its portfolio to include ICT services and, since November 2010, the operator also offers the T-Mobile TV satellite television service.
T-Mobile has always focused on the quality of offered services. Independent tests have repeatedly confirmed that T-Mobile is the quality leader in 2G and 3G (UMTS FDD) data services, as well as in GSM voice services.
Since its establishment, the company has placed emphasis on excellent customer service and proper conduct towards business partners, employees and the environment. T-Mobile has received, among other awards, the VIA Bona 2009 award for the involvement of its employees in philanthropic and volunteer activities.
T-Mobile is a member of the international telecommunications group Deutsche Telekom. Thanks to the group’s international presence, customers can count on the worldwide availability of their favourite services and enjoy uniform, favourable prices of calls when abroad.
For more information about the company, please visit t-press.cz or www.t-mobile.cz.
