VMO2 IoT connections surged by 458,600 in Q2 reaching 13.2 million, a 7.9 per cent increase year-over-year.
IoT accounted for nearly all of the 480,200 total net mobile additions in the quarter. Total mobile connections rose to 46.17 million by June 30 , up from 45.46 million a year earlier.
Total mobile revenue for the quarter stood at £1.385 billion, down 0.9 percent year-on-year driven by a 5.2 per cent drop in handset revenue to £273 million.
Wholesale mobile connections grew to 10.15 million, up 322,000 year-on-year attributed to its MVNO and third-party service partnerships on the O2 network.
The retail base rose to 36.01 million, but contract subscribers fell by 73,600 in Q, llargely due to churn in B2B accounts. Prepaid customer numbers grew modestly, with 9,900 net additions.
O2’s monthly contract churn improved to 1.1 per cent, showing better retention among remaining subscribers despite market competition.
The network will acquire 78.8 MHz of spectrum in a £343 million deal set to begin transferring in the second half of the year. The investment, funded by the prior-year partial sale of VMO2’s Cornerstone tower stake, will raise its total spectrum share to approximately 30 per ent and enable futureproofing for 5G Standalone rollout and increasing mobile capacity.
Lutz Schu?ler – Chief Executive Officer (below) said: “On the mobile side we continue to boost our network across the country, expand 5G Standalone to more areas and have announced a significant spectrum acquisition that will materially enhance our network performance in future, further improving customer experience.”
