The growth continues Fastweb. Also in the first quarter of the year the group led by Walter Renna records progressive numbers thanks in particular to performances of mobile and the wholesale and enterprise segments. According to the company, supporting the economic fundamentals are “a solid corporate strategy based on the control of network infrastructures – also made available to third-party operators and new entrants into the market – and the development of value-added solutions for companies and the PAs that leverage on the Cloud, 5G and cyber security services”.
Financial performance and investments in networks and AI
As of March 31, 2024 Fastweb’s total revenues stand at 658 million euros, up 6% compared to the same period last year. Also growing the overall Ebitda reaching 192 million euroswith an increase of 2% compared to the first quarter of 2023 while Ebitda including rental costs (EbitdaaL) stood at 179 million euros, up 2%.
Also for the first three months of 2024, Fastweb confirms its leadership in the investments it achieves quota 157 million eurosan amount equal to 24% of revenues, and mainly aimed at the development of ultra-performance networks for the digitalisation of the country, value-added services based on Cloud, 5G, cyber security services and GenAI solutions. Thanks to the supercomputer Nvidia acquired in recent months, Fastweb will be able to make very high computational capabilities available to companies and PAs within its Cloud environment for the development of AI and GenAI services and applications and will use it to develop and implement the first trained linguistic model natively in Italian. The recent agreement with Aeolus for the synergistic use of millimeter frequencies and infrastructures Fwa it will also allow us to accelerate coverage of white areas with connectivity of up to 1 Gb/s, creating the most extensive 5G Fwa network in the country.
The customer portfolio
In the first three months of the year Fastweb acquired 155 thousand new customers overall in the fixed, mobile and wholesale access service segmentsequal to an increase of 2% compared to the customer base at the end of 2023. The number of customers in the fixed market (retail and wholesale) grew by 4.5% to 3.3 million customers.
Of the 2,325,000 customers who activated an ultra-broadband connectivity service as of March 31, 2024, approximately 90% (+3% compared to the first quarter of 2023) benefit from an with performance from 100 Mbps up to 2.5 Gigabit. Thanks to continuous investments in the fixed network infrastructure, Fastweb reaches 94% of families and businesses across the country with ultra-broadband connectivity, of which as many as 38% (+5% compared to 31 March 2023) benefit from ultra-fast connections in fiber in Fiber to the Home mode.
Double-digit growth continues mobile segment, also thanks to the distribution agreement signed in recent months with a national operator. The customer base stands at 3,611,000 active SIMs, up 12% compared to the first quarter of 2023. The percentage of “converged” customers who adopt mobile services together with fixed ones stands at 43% (+ 2% compared to the same period of 2023) of the customer base. Coverage is also progressively increasing 5G in the area thanks to the fifth generation mobile network which at the end of March exceeded 73% (+6% compared to 31 March 2023) of the national population. In the first three months of the year the business unit Consumer it totaled revenues of 288 million euros.
The boom of the Enterprise and Wholesale divisions
As mentioned, the performance also improves Enterprise business unit which recorded revenues of 284 million euros in the first quarter of the year (+9% compared to the first quarter of 2023) thanks to “the excellence of the infrastructures, the 5G mobile service, the advanced Cloud and Edge Computing solutions and IT security that Fastweb makes it available to companies and PAs to accompany them on their digital transformation journey.”
Finally, a double-digit increase was recorded Wholesale divisionincreasingly central within the company’s strategy, with revenues of 86 million, an increase of 18% compared to the first three months of 2023. The number of ultra-broadband lines supplied to other national operators rises to 720 thousand, marking a +45% compared to the same period in 2023.
