Optus revenue drops as NBN payments continue to sting

Optus has reported a marginal decline in revenue over the second half of the 2022 financial year following lower NBN migration payments, lower equipment sales and the cessation of leasing revenues.

The telco reported $7.8 billion revenue for the full year ended 31 March 2022, 5.8 percent lower than the $8.3 billion reported in the corresponding period last year.

EBITDA rose 3.5 percent over the year, from $1.9 billion to $2 billion, and EBIT by 32 percent from $189 million to $249 million.

Optus said excluding NBN migration revenue, operating revenue declined 6.1 percent, citing impacts from lower equipment sales from the continued global supply shortages, as well as the ongoing impact of lockdowns on retail stores.

The dip in revenue caused by a reduction in customer migrations to NBN is a sector-wide issue and was cited as one of the causes of competitor Telstra’s 4.4 percent dip in revenue in its half-year results earlier this year. 

Optus boss Kelly Bayer Rosmarin said the telco had positive momentum despite a rough couple of covid-impacted years.

“Product innovation and enhanced customer experience continue to be major Optus strategic differentiators and underpinned our ability to grow our mobile customer base and generate increased mobile ARPU,” she said. 

“It’s been another big year for Optus. We continue to lead on 5G speed, we’ve launched eight Living Network features, announced our entry into the growing “Smart Spaces” market, launched our game-changing content aggregation platform SubHub and continued to heavily invest in the competitive critical infrastructure and services Australian communities need to survive and thrive.”

On its consumer mobile business, Optus reported that its customer base grew by 207,000 in the second half-year and that its NBN customer base grew by 41,000 from a year ago.

For the consumer business, home revenue (excluding NBN migration revenue) recorded growth of 4.5 percent reversing from a decline in the first half of the financial year.

The telco said the increase was driven by double-digit increases in both NBN broadband and fixed wireless access (FWA), offsetting declines from the legacy platforms.

NBN broadband average revenue per user grew from price changes implemented in the first half-year and FWA revenue rose from continued growth in 5G.