In the first quarter of 2022, Fastweb keeps growing in terms of customers, revenues, and margins, reaching the milestone of its thirty-fifth consecutive quarter of growth. A result achieved thanks to the evolution of Fastweb and of its strategy, which combines core business targets with the common good, pursuing the highest standards of social responsibility and environmental sustainability against climate change.
In the first three months of the year, the growth trend in customer acquisition continued with a total of 215.000 new customers in the segments of wireline, mobile and wholesale access services (+37% compared to 31st March 2021) and the revenues totaled 595 million euro, up 2,4% compared to 1Q 2021.
Reported EBITDA at 31st March reached 185 million euro, up 3,4% compared to 1Q 2021, whereas EBITDA after lease costs (EBITDAaL) reached 171 million euro, up 3,6% versus prior year.
Fastweb confirms its leadership in terms of investments, which totaled 157 million euro, equal to 26% of revenues, focused mainly on the development of high-performance networks, cloud computing and cybersecurity advanced services, and on reducing and compensating its emissions with the aim to become completely Carbon Neutral by 2025. At 31st March, the 5G mobile network covers 55% of the national territory while the 5G FWA network reaches more than two million homes.
Fastweb confirms also its leadership role in the penetration of ultra-broadband connectivity services. At 31st March 2.273.000 residential customers subscribed UBB connectivity services, up 9% compared to previous year. 83% of the customer base (+8 p.p. compared to 1Q 2021), enjoys connectivity with download speed above 100 Mb/s. More than 300.000 Fastweb’s customers are currently connected with speed of 2.5 Gb/s.
The mobile segment grew very well too, continuing its double-digit growth. At 31st March Fastweb totaled 2.649.000 active customers, up 28% compared to 1Q 2021. Convergent customers adopting mobile as well as wireline services represent 39% of Fastweb customer base (+4 p.p. compared to 1Q 2021).
The Enterprise Business Unit shows a steady upward trend, with revenues totaling 247 million euro (+4% compared to 1Q 2021), an increase enabled by the high performance of the infrastructures and of the wide portfolio of services able to support the digital transformation of Public Administrations and enterprises, including cyber security and Cloud computing solutions. Fastweb market share for the Enterprise Business segment is now 35% in terms of revenues.
Strong results also for the Wholesale division with revenues up to 63 million euro, +9% compared to the first three months of 2021. The number of UBB lines provided to other operators grew to 363.000 marking a significant increase of 137% compared to previous year due to the strong request for connectivity by other operators who choose Fastweb and its infrastructures to provide high-performance ultra-broadband connections to their customers.
Relevant facts occurred after the closing of the financial results for fiscal year 2021
The National Recovery and Resilience Plan
After having presented, in partnership with Aruba, its offer for the implementation and management of the National Strategic Hub, the national infrastructure for the provision of Cloud services for the Public Administration, Fastweb presented also its offer to Infratel’s bid for "Connected Schools" and "Connected Health" with the aim to provide to 12.000 health facilities and approximately 10.000 school sites ultra-highspeed networks.
ESG Targets
Also this year Fastweb was included in the Financial Times Europe's Climate Leaders 2022 ranking among the top twenty companies in Europe on the basis of the percentage of emission reduction compared with the 2015-2020 years revenues. Another important achievement that confirms the strong commitment of the company, which has set the ambitious goal of becoming completely Carbon Neutral by 2025. Fastweb has become a Benefit Company since January.