Telefonica has revealed its financial result – Capex, Opex, revenue, profit, 5G coverage, etc – during the first quarter of 2024.
Telefonica said its revenue rose 0.9 percent to €10,140million, driven by 2.3 percent increase in service revenue.
Telefonica has generated 61 percent of its revenue from the residential market (B2C), 22 percent from the business segment (B2B), and the remaining 17 percent from wholesale, partners and other revenues.
Telefonica said Capex reached 1,056 million, up 2.7 percent, bringing the Capex over revenue ratio to 10.4 percent, fully in line with the target of up to 13 percent by the end of 2024.
Telefonica, which maintains its position as global fibre leader, had 175 million premises passed with ultrafast networks at the end of March, of which a total of 76.6 million are FTTH, including those from the various fibre vehicles.
Telefonica’s 5G network cover 63 percent of the population in its core markets: 89 percent of the Spanish population, 95 percent of the German population, 48 percent of the Brazilian population and 53 percent of the UK population.
Telefonica has confirmed targets for 2024: revenue growth of around 1 percent and EBITDA and operating cash flow growth between 1 percent and 2 percent; a Capex over revenue ratio of up to 13 percent; and a FCF increase of more than 10 percent.
“Revenue is improving, commercial activity is improving and the quality of the service we provide to our customers and their satisfaction is also improving,” said Telefonica Chairman Jose Maria Alvarez-Pallete.
Telefonica Tech has started the year with solid revenue growth. Telefonica’s digital and technology business unit reported revenues of €476 million, 11 percent more compared with the first quarter of 2023.
Telefonica Infra, as a global connectivity platform, ended the quarter with 22 million premises passed with the various fibre vehicles and with more than 100,000 km of international connectivity via subsea cable. Telxius, the cable operator, maintained its high profitability ratio in the quarter, with an EBITDA margin of 50.8 percent.
Telefonica ended the first quarter with 388.3 million accesses (+1 percent). Fibre and mobile contract accesses stood out for another quarter, growing by 12 percent and 3 percent, respectively.
Spain and Brazil recorded the best churn rates in their history, falling to 0.9 percent and 0.97 percent, respectively.
In networks and systems, Telefonica is implementing an Artificial Intelligence programme to accelerate the application of AI by increasing the number of solutions from a total of 650 use cases today. This will reduce complexity and boost automation, efficiency, and customer experience.
In the first quarter, the company launched the AI Centre of Excellence, present in each business unit to ensure privacy by design and drive the process of extending AI-based applications across the company.
Network transformation, based on an increasing degree of virtualisation, is accelerating fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) and 5G deployments, as well as progress in switching off the copper network in Spain.
