T-Mobile Polska results in the first quarter of 2022 – consistent revenues and EBITDA growth despite negative impact of interconnect regulation.

In the first three months of 2022 T‑Mobile Polska achieved a substantial, steady growth both in revenue and EBITDA AL. Despite a sizeable negative influence of MTR regulation which resulted in lowering interconnect revenues by approx. 75 million PLN, total revenues amounted to 1.58 billion PLN, growing 2% year-on-year. This in turn translated to a sizeable 4.9% (y/y) growth in EBITDA AL reaching 452 million PLN.

Besides revenues being visibly impacted by regulation of MTRs, as mentioned above, another factor affecting company’s operations was the war in Ukraine. T‑Mobile focused its activities on supporting refugees coming to Poland, as well as company’s customers who maintained contact with people in Ukraine. T‑Mobile has provided them with unlimited free international calls from Poland to Ukraine combined with reduced roaming rates. Special offers have been made available to prepaid customers, who can take advantage of free calls, gigabytes and extended account validity. Only under the T‑Mobile prepaid, Heyah prepaid and T‑Mobile MIX offers customers have already used nearly 90 million free minutes and almost 6 million free gigabytes. Furthermore, volunteering T‑Mobile employees have been distributing free T‑Mobile and Heyah prepaid starters to Ukrainians coming to Poland: at the border, bus and train stations, as well as at the refugee reception points. Almost half a million SIM cards have already been distributed among Ukrainian refugees. Additionally, the company has been supporting the Polish Red Cross, Polish Centre for International Aid and a number of other organizations it provided with phones, SIM cards, routers and tablets and connectivity services free of charge.

At the same time T‑Mobile also introduced a number of initiatives aimed at providing the highest level of services at the border and in the reception centers, including deployment of mobile base stations and improving the capacity of existing ones. The war in Ukraine also induced the need to apply extraordinary security measures: physical, aimed at protecting the critical infrastructure, as well as cybernetic, to ensure networks would be protected from cyberattacks.

 

 

The recent months have proven how connectivity is essential for our daily lives but especially in the time of crisis, and shown us that it can’t be taken for granted. As a service provider we have learnt how much effort it takes to rise to the challenge in such a moment but also that by working together we can make a difference – said Andreas Maierhofer, CEO of T‑Mobile Polska – The war in Ukraine has undoubtedly impacted our operations in the first quarter, causing higher costs and additional work in order to respond to the issue. The fact that even in the face of these adversities we were able to report a sizeable growth in the key factors, shows that our strategy works even under the most unexpected circumstances.

By the end of the first quarter of 2022 T‑Mobile customer base grew by 640 thousand (y/y), reaching 11,8 million. Average monthly churn in contract remained at the very low level of 0.6%. According to the Mobile Number Portability report for the first quarter, published by the Office of Electronic Communication, not only was T‑Mobile the most successful MNO but also the only one to achieve a positive balance. In fact, the company has seen growing customer numbers in all the segments: contract, prepay, private and business. The new truly unlimited plans in B2C segment have been very well received by the market, similarly to the new, also unlimited, home internet offer. The number of customers taking advantage of the FTTH and entertainment offering, as well as customers using multiple services from T‑Mobile has also been growing steadily. The B2B segment has been growing across the line – including the small-business segment, as well as the offer for larger customers; especially in the security, connectivity and cloud.

The first quarter was very specific and brought a number of unexpected challenges. The war in Ukraine induced sizeable additional expenses necessary to guarantee security and reliability of our core services, while also supporting refugees and people, and institutions helping them. Moreover, we are facing unprecedented inflation rates and sky-rocketing energy prices which heavily impact our business. It wouldn’t be surprising if customers decided to postpone their buying decisions in this situation. In reality we are proud to see them choosing our offer more and more often, appreciating the best service quality and our focus on customer experience. This in turn translates into consistent growth in all key operational and financial factors despite these challenging circumstances – said Juraj Andras, CFO of T‑Mobile Polska.

Customers appreciate the unlimited offers

At T‑Mobile, the first quarter of 2022, in the area of activities addressed to individual customers, was marked by providing its users with unlimited services of the highest quality. In January this year, T‑Mobile became the first operator in Poland to launch unlimited internet for smartphones without data and speed limits. In March, in turn, the operator managed to remove another barrier from the lives of individual customers by introducing – also the first in the Polish market – a truly unlimited home internet offer in 5G/LTE technology with a router supporting Wi-Fi 6. All this in order to allow customers to enjoy what now matters to them, according to the new brand communication platform. Currently, interest in unlimited tariffs is growing steadily, and since the introduction of the spring promotion with a second unlimited subscription or fiber for up to a year at T‑Mobile's expense, unlimited tariffs are already chosen by the majority of new customers.

High demand for business services

Also in the business segment the operator continued to grow. Due to the situation in Ukraine and the increased number of hacking incidents on companies, an increased interest in cybersecurity services has been observed. In the first quarter of 2022 the operator saw a 30% increase in requests for cybersecurity services and achieved a significant increase in sales in this segment, especially among large customers such as banks and other financial institutions or software developers. It introduced a new range of cybersecurity products based on its proprietary Cyber Guard solution, Disaster Recovery as a Service offer and launched a new Data Center at Szlachecka, Warsaw, which allowed a Metro Cluster product to be introduced, providing customers with the highest level of data security. In March, T‑Mobile signed a contract with Agency for Restructuring and Modernization of Agriculture, prolonging existing cooperation in Data Center services for the next 6 years.

During the first quarter T‑Mobile continued strengthening its position in the smaller business segment. It introduced changes its to MagentaBIZNES offer thanks to which entrepreneurs will receive an even faster Internet connection, a larger Internet package with the lowest tariff, as well as additional minutes within the European Union.

Investments and optimizations to deliver the best network quality

In order to provide customers with the best network quality and to prepare for the growing demand for data, T‑Mobile continued the network modernization process. It allows the operator to keep increasing the 4G network capacity, expand the 5G network using the already owned frequency resources, and also prepare the infrastructure for the future rollout in the target 3.x GHz band. T‑Mobile continued preparations necessary for the shutdown of the 3G network which will enable the freed resources to be used for more capable and faster next generation networks in the future. This approach yields tangible results – the T‑Mobile network has been recognized by Speedtest.pl as the one with the fastest mobile download speeds throughout the whole quarter.

Improvement of accessibility

In the ESG area, apart from the full spectrum of activities aimed at supporting war refugees and NGOs helping them, the operator informed its customers about full its accessibility for deaf persons. This is another step in the consistently implemented D&I (Diversity and Inclusion) strategy. From the beginning of 2022, people with hearing impairments can take advantage of all available forms of contact. Using the website www.t-mobile.pl/c/migam deaf customers can connect with an online sign language interpreter who will participate in the conversation between the person and an employee of the T‑Mobile contact center. Those are not the only changes – the operator has also decided to expand the availability of sign language interpreter services from selected 120 stores to all stores, meaning more than 600 stores throughout Poland. In each of these places, the customer can count on the connection conducted by an employee of a given outlet.