Telefónica said it ended the quarter with 35.6 million LTE customers
Telefónica reported 10.78 billion euro ($12.32 billion) in revenues for the first quarter of 2016, down compared to the 11.54 billion euro reported in the year-ago period. The telco’s net profit for Q1 reached 776 million euro, compared to a net profit of 1.8 billion euro in Q1 2015.
The company said that the year-on-year net profit variation was from a nonrecurrent positive fiscal impact in the first quarter of 2015.
Telefónica’s Spanish business saw the highest growth in terms of revenue during the quarter at 8.6%. Telefónica’s operations in Germany declined 2.3%, while the telco’s revenue in Spanish-speaking Latin America fell by 16.7% in the quarter. Meanwhile, Telefónica’s Brazilian business declined by 13% year-on-year.
The telco’s capital expenditures during the first quarter totaled 1.50 billion euro, down 10.6% compared to the year-ago period.
“The performance of the main financial variables in the first quarter was affected by the depreciation of the Latin American currencies against the euro, particularly the Brazilian real, Argentine peso, the Venezuelan bolivar and the Colombian peso,” the company explained. “The evolution of exchange rates deducted 16 percentage points and 14.8 percentage points from reported revenue and [operating income before depreciation and amortization] performance, respectively.”
The telecom firm ended the first three months of the year with 316 million total subscribers, a 1.1% increase year-on-year. Mobile telephony subscribers totaled 246.8 million at the end of March, down 2.3% year-on-year. Telefónica said it reached 35.57 million LTE subscribers at the end of the period, reaching 15% penetration of its overall mobile base.
The telco also said it supported 115 million smartphone users, up 25.8% compared to the year-ago period. Penetration of smartphones in the company’s overall mobile subscriber base reached 49.4% at the end of the quarter.
