Vodafone, revenues and customers on the fixed network are growing

The lockdown at the beginning of the year had a profound impact on the digital diet of Italian families and had heavy repercussions both in terms of data traffic and in terms of telco remuneration. According to AGCOM data, in fact, the surge in data traffic had a heavy impact in terms of the income statement of the telcos, but this does not seem to be the case with Vodafone: the group, in fact, scored an excellent result both in terms of additional subscriptions that in terms of revenues, exceeding 3 million users on the fixed network.

In the first three months of 2020, the telecommunications sector recorded a decrease in revenues of 5.8 % compared to the same period of the previous year and this also in the face of a sharp increase in daily data traffic mainly due to the more intense use of streaming video content

AGCOM Report

Fixed network traffic: the impact of the lockdown

For Vodafone this is a trend in countertendency at the time of greatest pressure for the Italian network, therefore, consolidating the presence of the group in Italy both on the fixed and the mobile front. Overall in the second quarter of 2020 Vodafone posted a 4.1% increase in revenues and activated 139 thousand new lines. The group therefore knew how to attract users who found themselves in need of a better network service, whatever the drive for this need: smart working, remote learning or simple entertainment, in any case based on a hungry need bandwidth. In the face of this success, the group has also been able to manage a 40% increase in data traffic consumed compared to the previous quarter, an unprecedented surge linked to new habits consolidated in times of social isolation.

On the basis of data from AGCOM, each day on each individual fixed network were consumed on average almost 6GB of data , while in the same period a year earlier (the increase between January and may 2020 compared to 2019, instead, stood at 48.8%). These numbers are the result of what happened: the sudden increase of the video streaming in each time slot, as well as the increasing number of calls, has resulted in a parallel increase in the traffic as much download as upload, with a predominance of the first.

The fiber Vodafone now reaches 23.7 million customers and 7.6 million real estate units all over the national territory, and the efficiency and the extent to which it is necessary to add the coverage 4.5 G in 400 Italian cities, the coverage of 4G in about 7600, and a plan for the development of the network of FWA already drawn up on the 2000 municipalities not yet reached by the fiber.