EE adds 212,000 post-paid mobile customers in Q4

UK mobile network group EE registered 725,000 net post-paid customer additions in 2012, including 212,000 additions in Q4 (excluding MVNOs), with 52 percent of customers now on high-value post-paid plans. Service revenue for the year was GBP 5.95 billion, down 2.6 percent. Excluding the impacts of regulation, service revenue was up 2.7 percent. Adjusted EBITDA was GBP 1.41 billion for the year.

Postpaid smartphone adoption was up 9 percentage points year-on-year in Q4 to 78 percent (Q4 2011: 69%); and 94 percent (Q4 2011: 88%) of new postpaid customers selected smartphones. 

EE's Network Optimisation programme completed the year on track. A total of 2,659 sites were decommissioned, 39 percent of which occurred in Q4. 

Early Orange and T-Mobile customers migrating to 4G on EE are showing increases of around 10 percent in ARPU, demonstrating data monetisation. EE said it's also seeing early 4G momentum with business customers, with more than 10 percent of corporate customers trialling or using 4G. 

The fixed broadband business achieved double digit year-on-year growth in revenues, and EE saw a nearly 40 percent year-on-year increase in the machine-to-machine base to almost 1.4 million.