The total fixed and mobile service base stood at 14 million RGUs, which continued to expand in Broadband and Connectivity, Post-Paid Mobile and Pay-TV.
Altice Portugal strengthens its leadership and continues to transform the country, implementing the strategic options and pillars of Convergence, Quality of Service, Innovation and Portfolio diversification, Digital Transformation and Investment in state-of-the-art Infrastructures and Networks.
- - The company began the first quarter of the year with overall revenue growth of +0.6%, benefiting from growth of +2.8% in the Consumer Segment and +4.6% in the Business Services Segment, excluding Altice Labs.
- - Operating performance was solid and growing in both Segments, as a result of the continued commitment to an innovative portfolio, convergence, quality of service and security of networks and infrastructures.
- - The total RGU and Unique Customer base continued to grow in the first three months of the year, reaching 14 million and 1.7 million respectively, allowing us to reinforce our leadership of the telecommunications market in Portugal.
- - EBITDA amounted to 259 million euros, up 5.6% year-on-year, leveraged by growth in core telecommunications revenues and budgetary discipline.
- - Investment totaled 99 million euros in the 1st quarter, reflecting the practically total coverage of the population with optical fiber (95%), the reinforcement of the 4G mobile network, which reaches 99.95% of the population, and the commitment to 5G, which at the end of the 1st quarter had a population coverage rate of 95.66%.
The strategic options of recent years, which have resulted in a clear improvement in economic and financial performance, combined with the continued commitment to expanding the Optical Fiber network, improving Quality of Service, expanding the Mobile Network and investing in 5G, as the driving forces behind providing an excellent service to the Customer, are the basis for maintaining the positive performance in this quarter.
The strategy involves a digital transformation, with benefits for the Customer, boosting the improvement and diversification of our Products and Services. Innovation using new tools, such as Artificial Intelligence (AI), is one of the new pillars for continuing to provide customers with high standards of service quality and sustainable growth.
The results for the 1st quarter of 2024 showed growth in the main operating indicators, both compared to the previous quarter and to the same period in the previous year. The company strengthened its market position and continued to expand its Single Customer Base, growing its total number of Telco RGUs, maintaining its customer acquisition rate combined with record levels of disconnections and diversifying its services to synergistic RGUs, such as Energy and Insurance.
In the first three months of the year, total Fixed Services increased by +0.3% to 6.0 million, and the Subscription Television and Connectivity Service Customer Base grew by +0.5% and +0.6% respectively, both standing at 1.9 million.
The Post-Paid Mobile Customer Base has already surpassed the 5 million mark and, driven by convergence, grew by +1.5% (77 thousand customers) in the 1st quarter of 2024.
Altice Portugal's Revenues increased by +0.6% in the 1st quarter of 2024, compared to the same period of the previous year, standing at 704 million euros, driven by solid growth in operating results, boosted by Fixed-Mobile convergence, expansion of the Core Telco Customer Base, Non-Telco services and ARPU growth. The positive effects in the Consumer, SME and Corporate Segments made it possible to offset the decrease in Altice Labs Equipment Sales for some geographies in particular.
Revenues in the Consumer Segment amounted to 345 million euros in the 1st quarter of 2024, a year-on-year increase of +2.8%. Service Revenues increased by +3.6% as a result of the growth in the Customer Base and RGUs and the increase in ARPU, boosted by the better portfolio mix through convergence and price increases. Unique Customers in the Consumer Segment increased by +0.5% year-on-year at the end of the 1st quarter, representing +9 thousand net additions, and reached a total of 1.7 million customers. Fixed and Mobile Services RGUs reached 11 million and increased by +132 thousand year-on-year. These results reflect the leadership and quality of service recognized by customers.
Revenues in the Business Services Segment stood at 359 million euros in the first quarter of 2024, representing a reduction of -1.4%. In the SMB&SOHO, SME, Corporate and Wholesale Segments, the route and pace of growth was maintained as a result of the increase in the RGU and Business Customer Base, as well as the diversification of Non-Telco and International services.
The positive and growing performance of the B2B and Wholesale Telecommunications Core Revenue was impacted by a reduction in Altice Labs' hardware and equipment sales.
EBITDA increased by +5.6% compared to the 1st quarter of 2023, to 259 million euros in the 1st quarter of 2024, underpinned by the operational dynamics of expanding the Customer Base and RGUs, growth in the respective ARPU, portfolio diversification, new Non-Telco businesses, and discipline in operating costs.
The company continued to strengthen and optimize its resources, the capacity of its infrastructure and the provision of innovative services. Investment therefore amounted to 99 million euros in the 1st quarter of 2024, with a slower pace in the expansion of the Optical Fiber Network, which has already reached 6.4 million homes, but with a clear reinforcement in the expansion of coverage of the Mobile Network and in the implementation of 5G technology, already with a coverage rate of 95.66% of the population at the end of the 1st quarter of 2024. In 4G, the coverage rate of the national population in the 1st quarter of 2024 was 99.95%.
MEO has been recognized as the operator with the best Mobile Network in Lisbon, according to Umlaut's "Audit Report, Portugal, Lisbon" for 2024. The study tested and measured the experience of using mobile voice and data services on all networks (2G/4G/5G) of the three national operators in Lisbon.
In the Report "The Best Brands for Consumers in 2024" of the Portal da Queixa by Consumers Trust, Altice Portugal's brands, MEO Energia and SAPO, won the prestigious Recommended Brand Award 2024. The award is the result of evaluations by Portuguese consumers over the last year.
The recent "Brand Reputation" study by consultancy firm OnStrategy revealed that the MEO, SAPO, Altice Portugal and MOCHE brands are among the most respected in Portugal. Over the course of the year, more than 2,000 brands from 70 sectors of activity were analyzed, based on data collected from more than 50,000 citizens.
According to the latest data released by ANACOM, MEO was the telecommunications operator with the lowest number of complaints last year, maintaining this status for more than four consecutive years.
During the second quarter of the year, MEO launched the world's first sustainable telecommunications and energy service, with synergies in the form of cross-benefits between telecommunications services provided by MEO and energy services provided by MEO Energia. The announcement of this unique and disruptive offer on the national market was accompanied by a repositioning of the MEO brand, which took on a new graphic and visual identity.
Altice Portugal's Carcavelos Submarine Cable Station has received the world's largest submarine cable system, 2Africa, also known as "Facebook Cable", the result of a partnership that has consolidated Altice Portugal's role as a leading operator on the submarine communications map.
During the first quarter of the year, Portugal scored points in technological innovation through Altice Labs, having obtained two new patents from the National Institute of Industrial Property.