Swiss telecoms group Swisscom has published its interim report for H1 2017, registering a 1.4% year-on-year decline in net revenue to CHF5.69 billion (USD5.9 billion). Swisscom attributed the dip primarily to its Swiss operations, where the company was affected by increasing competition – which led to price cuts and a decrease in its subscriber base – fixed line substitution and a reduction in roaming fees. Its Italian subsidiary, Fastweb, however, saw a 4.8% increase in turnover to EUR923 million (USD1.1 billion) on the back of subscriber growth and higher wholesale revenue. Similarly, EBITDA for the group rose by 1.5% y-o-y to CHF2.26 billion as growth in Italy offset a decline at Swisscom’s domestic unit, although the operator notes that ‘a large portion’ of the revenue decline in Switzerland was balanced out by cost management. Consequently, net income for the period expanded 6.5% to CHF839 million from CHF788 million in H1 2016.
In terms of operational results, Swisscom counted a total of 2.208 million fixed line telephony subscribers in Switzerland – down from 2.518 million in June 2016 – whilst its domestic mobile subscriber base also shrank, contracting by 0.5% y-o-y to 6.589 million. Swisscom recorded increases in its fixed broadband and pay-TV user bases, however, counting 1.989 million (0.6% y-o-y) and 1.447 million (7.1%) subscribers respectively. In Italy, meanwhile, Swisscom claimed a total of 880,000 mobile lines, an increase of 45.2% y-o-y, and 2.411 million broadband accounts (up 6.8%).