Telecom Italia consolidated its recent turnaround in the third-quarter, announcing a 6.7 percent year-on-year organic rise in EBITDA to EUR 2.15 billion from EUR 1.98 billion a year earlier driven by the best quarterly result for its domestic unit since 2007. Third-quarter revenues for the group were up 1.4 percent on a reported basis, down 1.2 percent organically, to EUR 4.84 billion, helped by stabilising ARPU in Italy and soaring data demand at its TIM Brasil unit.
CEO Flavio Cattaneo welcomed the results, saying the company had reacted positively to the efficiency measures announced in May. “The outcome of our work continues to show and therefore one understands how efficiency leads to beneficial effects also on revenues,” said Cattaneo, with chairman Giuseppe Recchi stressing that the group was achieving excellent results ahead of expectations. The company reiterated its forecast of “low single digit organic growth” in domestic EBITDA in 2016.
Telecom Italia’s domestic performance was again driven by its mobile business, where revenues were up 1.1 percent, attributed to an improvement in competitive dynamics and the ever-increasing expansion of mobile internet. The company’s fixed segment fared less well, with service revenues down 3.2 percent in the third quarter, a slight improvement on the 6.0 percent declines posted in the first two quarters of the year.
The company added that its 4G mobile network reached over 95 percent of the population in October, while 56 percent of the population had access to fibre, reaching the targets set for the end of 2016 well ahead of schedule in both cases.
