O2 reaches 34.5 million customers; reports third year of growth

The UK’s most popular mobile network – O2 – has reported its third consecutive year of growth.

The company ended 2019 with an impressive 34.5 million customers, including those who are served through Giffgaff, Tesco Mobile, Sky Mobile, and Lycamobile. This number is up from the 34.1 million it recorded three months earlier and represents an increase of 5.7% year-on-year.

It cited a commitment to customer fairness and transparency, in addition to the success of its flexible custom plans, as the reason for its strong performance. The MVNOs mentioned above also performed strongly last year, helping further boost O2’s results.

Contract net additions stood at 1.73 million for the entire year and an impressive 623,000 in the final quarter of 2019. The Telefonica-owned brand also managed to maintain an industry leading churn rate of just 1% last year.

As for the financial side of things, full-year revenues increased by 3.8% to £6.24 billion from the £6.01 billion it recorded in 2018. Profitability, on the other hand, grew slightly from £1.82 billion to £1.86 billion, representing annual growth of 2.3%.

It’s fair to say O2 has come a long way in the last few years. Back in 2016, parent company Telefonica wanted to merge its business with Three because of the increasingly competitive UK market.

The deal was ultimately blocked and, ever since, O2 has been growing rapidly. This is unlikely to change anytime soon because the company recently got its hands on a big chunk of spectrum for its 5G network.