Optus rings up revenue growth as customers flock back
Optus may be starting to put the past behind it and regain the Australian public's trust after 2022's massive cybersecurity breach and a nationwide outage the following year as mobile phone customers flock back to the telco.
The Singapore-owned telecommunication giant on Thursday reported it added 238,000 customers to its mobile base in the year to the end of March.
The surge was led by healthy prepaid growth at mobile virtual network operator amaysim, with the number of Optus postpaid customers also increasing by 52,000.
Revenue over the year hit $8.2 billion — up 1.4 per cent from a year earlier. Operating costs were flat at $6.1b. Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation rose 5.7 per cent to $2.2b and EDIT leapt 55 per cent to $446 million.
Chief executive Stephen Rue — who joined Optus early last year after a decade-long stint at NBN Co, including as CEO — hailed the results but conceded Optus still had work to do to rebuild its tarnished reputation.
'Optus is committed to providing real choice for telecommunications customers as we prioritise exceptional service, competitive offers and a reliable network,'' Mr Rue said.
'Our mobile results, led by the strong performance of amaysim, show customers are responding to our commitment to offering a range of choices that suit their everyday telco and communication needs.'
Sales of high-end mobile devices boosted mobile equipment revenue by 5.2 per cent, as mobile service revenue grew 4.1 per cent, with blended average revenue per user rising 2.4 per cent year-on-year. Overall mobile revenue was up 4.4 per cent.
Home revenue was 3.9 per cent higher, with NBN and fixed wireless access revenue up 3.5 per cent and 9.1 per cent, respectively, mainly due to higher average revenue per user.
Wholesale and enterprise and business fixed revenue fell 5.3 per cent for the second half, reflecting lower project-based satellite revenue and declining fixed revenues.
Up to 10 million Optus customers were affected in September 2022 when hackers breach the telco's data defences.
Just over a year later, a nationwide outage that affected internet, mobile and fixed-line services caused mass disruption across the country and forced the exit of under-fire CEO Kelly Bayer Rosmarin.
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