Mobile phone operator Digifone added 57,000 subscribers over the past quarter and reported the best average revenue per user figures of all O2 group companies, new quarterly results show. Chief executive Ms Danuta Gray also indicated that Digifone would not need to make major job cuts, despite news yesterday that there would be 1,900 redundancies at two other O2 firms.
Results published yesterday by the parent O2 firm show that, in the three months to December 31st, Digifone increased its customer base to 1.162 million. Digifone also stabilised its average revenue per user during this period, achieving €532 (£419) per year compared to €535 in the previous three months.
Average revenue per user is considered a crucial measure of the performance of mobile operators, as they shift strategies from acquiring customers to boosting earnings from existing customers.
Digifone achieved the highest average revenue figure for all O2 operating companies. The lowest of all its subsidiaries was the Dutch operator, Telfort. The next highest was the €370 achieved by BT Cellnet.
Ms Gray said Digifone's higher average revenue per user figures were not a result of more expensive mobile tariffs in the Republic. "I think there is a higher level of usage in Ireland. People talk more here," she said, adding that the firm had also reduced its subscriber acquisition costs by 25 per cent since the first quarter.
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