As of 13 May, Telefónica had completed 35.7% of its share buyback programme thanks to the company’s increasing cash generation enabling it to step up the programme
The results for the first quarter of 2008 highlight once again the Group’s strong organic growth, bolstering its unique differential profile in the sector, the high value of its geographic and business diversification and the integrated management of the Company.
Total accesses rose 12.9% vs. March 2007 to almost 233.5 million due to the strong growth in commercial activity in all markets. This growth was underpinned by the increase in wireless (+16.3%), broadband (+26.8%) and pay TV (+64.4%) accesses.
By access type, the Telefónica Group’s wireless accesses topped 171 million at the end of the first quarter, with net adds of around 4 million customers. The main contributors were Brazil (839,446), Mexico (724,548), Peru (632,114) and Germany (535,994).
Retail internet broadband accesses surged 26.8% year-on-year to over 10.8 million at the end of March, driven by: the strong take-up for ADSL, TV and voice bundles, making significant contributions to developing the broadband market and forging customer loyalty. In Spain, retail broadband accesses surpassed 4.8 million (up 20.2% year-on-year), in Latin America, 5.2 million (+29.5% year-on-year) and in Europe, 800,000 (+58.4% year-on-year). Net adds in the third quarter stood at nearly 222,000 in Spain, while this figure amounted to 201,300 and 129,900 in Latin America and Europe respectively.
Pay TV accesses at the end of the quarter exceeded 1.8 million, 64.4% more than a year before, with operations up and running in Spain, the Czech Republic, Peru, Chile, Colombia and Brazil.
