Everything Everywhere sees record contract growth

Everything Everywhere gained a record number of contract customers in the last quarter driven by consumer demand for smartphones.

T Mobile Full Monty

The company, which was formed from the merger of Orange and T-Mobile, gained 313,000 new contract customers in the three months to 31 December.

Smartphone customers are considered more lucrative for mobile operators as they usually buy more expensive data packages on pay-monthly contracts.

Everything Everywhere reported that 69% of its contract customers are now smartphone owners, up 18 percentage points year-on-year. Almost half (48%) of its customers are now on contracts.

The gains emphasise why Everything Everywhere is focusing its current multi-million pound brand campaign for Orange around its premium mobile internet products. The current T-Mobile campaign also highlights a data package as part of its unlimited “Full Monty” price plan (pictured).

Everything Everywhere’s revenue from customers slipped 2.1% to £6.2bn for the full year to 31 December, which was blamed on Ofcom clamping down on termination rates. The company added 894,000 post-paid customers in the period, with T-Mobile marking the highest contract additions since 2006.

Income from data and messaging services made up 43% of total revenue, up six percentage points year-on-year.

Last year Everything Everywhere made a series of job cuts, which resulted in the number of marketers at the company slashed by 10%.

Everything Everywhere says it made £278m of savings last year and is on track to make £3.5bn in savings by 2014.

Olaf Swantee, Everything Everywhere’s chief executive, says: “As a result of network sharing and customer experience improvements, we are seeing good commercial momentum and are capitalising on the smartphone and data opportunity to drive underlying growth.”

Click here to read a Q&A with Everything Everywhere’s director of brand Spencer McHugh.

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