It’s become common for telcos to report a reduction in revenues from their traditional phone business. But now it seems that’s also impacting on the cablenets.
In what parent Liberty Global described as “softness”, the UK cablenet saw its Q1 ARPU slip on the back of lower install and telephony usage revenue. There was also a reduction in the number of pay-per-view events available to its TV customers.
In the three months to March 31, 2019, Virgin’s ARPU was down to 51.36, from 51.58 12 months previous.
However, it was far from a bad quarter for Virgin, which put on 60,000 RGU additions.
It also increased its top broadband speed to 500 Mbps, while introducing a new Intelligent WiFi system designed to improve customers’ in home experience.
“Our competitive position remains strong and we continue to extend our reach with Project Lightning, where we are building 400,000-500,000 new premises every year,” said CEO Mike Fries.
Following the sale of businesses in Germany, Hungary, Romania and the Czech Republic to Vodafone, Liberty Global’s Q1 2019 continuing operations operating income was down 10% to $106 million.
