The main Spanish telecoms have already examined their accounts until September, marked, again, by tough competition. MásMóvil and Digi led the growth, in the face of the stagnation of the large groups and jointly gained close to 1.57 million lines from January to September, mostly at the expense of the large groups. MásMóvil, in the process of merging with Orange, added 582,000 new services up to September: 176,000 fixed broadband and 406,000 mobile contracts. The firm registered income of 2,172 million euros between January and September, 27% more with the incorporation of Euskaltel, and 4% more in pro forma terms. Services revenue increased 28% reported and 4% organic. Adjusted ebitda grew 36% (13% underlying), while the ebitda margin increased to 39%.
Digi, for its part, increased its mobile customer portfolio by 29%, to 3.61 million, and fixed broadband by 89%, to 746,000, in year-on-year terms. Between January and September, it incorporated 992,000 lines: 642,000 mobile, 266,000 broadband and 84,000 landlines. The Romanian company, thanks to its aggressive rates, reached revenues of 357 million euros, 38% more. The telco did not offer profitability data, and its cost per customer (arpu) fell 3.1%, to 9.5 euros.
Among the large companies, Telefónica España increased its revenues by 0.8%, up to 9,283 million euros (0.2% in the third quarter), thanks to handset sales, which grew by 63%. Service revenues fell 0.9% in the quarter, and 1% between January and September. Convergent arpu rose 1.8% to 90.5 euros. Its oibda fell 3.7% (2.8% between June and September), while the margin went from 38.4% to 36.7%.
Retail accesses fell by 0.1%, with a drop of 0.3% in broadband, and growth of 2.4% in mobile, due to the 21% increase in the Internet of Things. Discounting M2M, it lost 125,000 mobile contract lines and 21,000 broadband lines.
Competitors
Orange Spain reduced its income by 2.8%, up to 3,444 million euros. However, in the third quarter they rose 0.2%, in their first year-on-year growth since the first quarter of 2021, thanks to the 4.2% increase in the wholesale business and the recovery of revenue from roaming of tourists, who rose 17.9%. According to the teleco, retail services continued their recovery, with a quarterly drop of 1.4%, compared to a drop of 2.1% in the second and 4% in the first, with an improvement in arpu of 2.4 %.
Orange lost 9,000 convergent customers and 2,000 in fixed broadband, although it did capture 8,000 net registrations in postpaid mobile. Since January it has gained 539,000 mobile lines, although thanks to the internet of things, which contributed 534,000 connections. Without counting the latter, in the mobile contract it lost 148,000 lines. In addition, it reduced its portfolio of fixed accesses by 41,000.
Vodafone registered income of 1,965 million euros in its first fiscal semester, which ended at the end of September, 6% less. Income from services fell by 4.5%, due to the advance of the low costthe reduction of the customer base and the cut in the prices of mobile termination rates.
Ebitda after leases rose 0.2%, thanks to higher cost efficiencies and an improvement in the tax burden due to a favorable court ruling. In commercial terms, the telco lost 72,000 fixed broadband lines between January and September, although it gained 68,000 in mobile, thanks to prepaid.
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