EE on track to reach 14M 4G subscribers by year end

EE said it is "firmly on track" to reach 14 million 4G subscribers by the end of the year, although subscriber growth is still not translating into higher revenue figures.

The UK-based mobile operator, which is in the process of being sold by Orange and Deutsche Telekom to BT, did report healthy revenue growth in its fixed business, saying that sales here improved by 15 per cent year on year with a net addition of 50,000 broadband customers.

Mobile service revenue was down 1.7 per cent at £1.3 billion, although Jefferies analysts noted that this was an improvement on Q4 2014, when mobile revenue fell by 2.1 per cent. The company gained 1.7 million 4G subscribers in the first quarter to reach 9.3 million overall.

"As much of the UK market now has smartphones, we are leading the charge into new growth areas by cross-selling our innovative range of connected products including 4G tablets, 4G Wi-Fi, fixed broadband and EETV to our existing customers," said CFO Neal Milsom.

In the mobile segment, 4G and data are now clearly king: data now accounts for 52 per cent of average revenue per user (ARPU) after rising 5 percentage points year on year. Of the total new connections in the first quarter, 96 per cent were on 4G.

The operator also noted that its 4G network now covers 87 per cent of the population, while its so-called "double-speed" 4G network covers 67 per cent. The company is targeting 99 per cent population coverage by 2017.