O2’s recent renaissance shows no signs of slowing down after the operator reported a third consecutive year of growth.
Full year revenues increased by 3.8 percent to £6.24 billion, while profitability rose by 2.3 percent to £1.86 billion.
The company attributed the strong showing to its commitment to customer fairness and transparency, citing the success of its flexible custom plans and an industry-low churn rate of one percent.
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O2 results
An increase in the number of MVNO users also contributed to the increase. Across all operators that use the O2 network, including O2 itself, Tesco Mobile, Giffgaff and Sky Mobile, there were 1.73 million net contract additions over the year as the number of total connections reached 34.5 million.
“Today we’re marking 18 years of serving UK customers, and our business has never been stronger. Our third full year of consecutive topline growth, profitability and rising customer numbers is something our teams can be proud of,” said O2 CEO Mark Evans.
“From the very beginning, we’ve had a relentless ambition to champion customer fairness, investing to provide the best possible experience for those using our network. But customers who aren’t with O2 are still being penalised for their loyalty to their phone networks.”
In 2016, parent company Telefonica wanted to merge with rival operator Three, claiming the transaction was necessary to compete in a UK market moving towards convergence. However, O2 has thrived since the deal was blocked, leading to plans for an IPO at some point in the future.
The past year has seen O2 get its hands on valuable high-capacity spectrum and launch a 5G mobile service.
