Türk Telekom TV Home subscribers down 15k in 1Q 2023

Türk Telekom Group has announced financial and operational results for the first quarter of 2023.

1st Quarter 2023 Operational Highlights

Total number of subscribers declined to 52.5 mn with a net loss of 254K during the quarter, largely due to the impact of the quakes on net addition performance across all segments but also to the ongoing contraction in the fixed voice customer base.

Fixed broadband base remained flat QoQ at 14.8 mn, losing 26K subscribers on net basis and recording a contraction first time for more than a decade. We expect to see a declining trend in the number of fixed internet customers in the coming quarters as the occupancy in quake provinces reshapes over time. In the medium-term subscriber dynamics should offer a positive outlook again with still relatively low penetration level and the continuation of strong growth momentum in the past years. Fixed internet ARPU growth continued its upward trend for the fifth consecutive quarter, reaching 41.2% YoY.

Fibre subscribers rose to 11.8 mn with 293K quarterly net additions. The number of FTTC subscribers reached 8.2 mn, while the number of FTTH/B subscribers increased to 3.6 mn. The share of fibre subscribers in our fixed broadband base increased to 79.8% from 71.2% YoY.

Fibre cable network length increased to 410K km as of Q1’23 from 403K km as of Q4’22 and 372K km as of Q1’22. Fibre network covered 31.6 mn households by the end of Q1’23 compared to 31.4 mn as of Q4’22 and 30.6 mn as of Q1’22. FTTC homepass was 20.9 mn while FTTH/B homepass increased to 10.7 mn.

Mobile portfolio slightly grew to 25.6 mn by adding 112K net subscribers in Q1’23, thanks to a robust performance in the postpaid segment which gained 294K new customers, while prepaid segment lost 182K subscribers owing both to quake and competition related dynamics. Blended mobile ARPU growth also kept climbing higher to reach 66.0% YoY.

Average monthly data usage per LTE user increased by 24.6% to 13.1 GB in Q1’23 from 10.5 GB in Q1’22.

The ongoing decline in the number of fixed voice subscribers along with the strategy focusing on naked-DSL sales in new acquisitions has deepened by the quake-hit activation and churn activity, reaching 344K on net basis during the quarter. Including nDSL, the number of total access lines dropped to 17.2 mn from 17.3 mn a quarter ago.

In Q1’23, TV Home base also trended down to 1.4 mn from 1.5 mn subscribers with about 15K net subscriber loss.

Self-service online transactions app ‘Online İşlemler’ has been downloaded by 71 mn times by the end of first quarter. The number of unique subscribers using the application was 19.2 mn.

Operational Performance – Subscribers (mn)

                                                                                                       QoQ     YoY
                   2021 Q1  2021 Q2  2021 Q3  2021 Q4  2022 Q1  2022 Q2  2022 Q3  2022 Q4  2023 Q1  Change  Change
                   -------  -------  -------  -------  -------  -------  -------  -------  -------  ------  ------

Total TV[1]          3.074    3.013    2.973    2.945    2.917    2.901    2.888    2.916    2.920    0.1%    0.1%
 Tivibu Home[2]      1.534    1.518    1.516    1.511    1.494    1.482    1.475    1.462    1.447  (1.1)%  (3.1)%
Home TV ARPU          20.8     21.6     22.1     23.0     24.3     25.7     28.1     30.0     33.1   10.3%   36.5%

1. Includes IPTV, DTH and Tivibu GO subscribers
2. Includes IPTV and DTH subscribers