Irish consumer sentiment falls in February

Consumer sentiment dipped in February as the post-Christmas sales came to an end and worries about unemployment intensified.

The company said monthly blended average revenue per user (arpu) for the quarter declined to €42.60, down from €43.70 in the preceding three months and from €45.70 in the fourth quarter in 2007.

The mobile phone operator said customer numbers rose 5 per cent last year to 1.72 million, with 14,589 net new customers added in the fourth quarter.

O2 Ireland customers sent 699 million text messages between October and December, up 73.9 per cent compared with the same quarter in 2007.

Monthly average arpu for billed customers for the quarter was €69.2.20, down from €78.80 on the comparable 2007 period. Pay-as-you go average customer revenue dipped to €26.7 in the fourth quarter from €29 a year earlier.

Paul Whelan, chief financial officer Telefónica O2 Ireland, said trading conditions during the last quarter of 2008 had been difficult for all businesses, including telecoms.

“Although we saw a slight decline in revenues, we continued to win customers in the marketplace, adding almost 15,000 new customers in the quarter, and 82,000 in total in 2008,” he said.

The company said data revenues continued to grow as a percentage of overall service revenues during the quarter, driven by growth in non-SMS revenues and now account for 8.3 per cent.

The company said it had 98,000 mobile broadband customers at the end of December.