Telco increases turnover but sees broadband competition hotting up in the Netherlands
VodafoneZiggo has signing a multi-year managed services extension agreement with Amdocs, signing a multi-year managed services extension agreement that will see the vendor take responsibility for the Netherlands telco’s business systems operations,
The two began collaborating last year as part of VodafoneZiggo’s desire to provide a unified user journey across all lines of business. The goal is to prioritise self-service enablement and ensure shorter average handling times – plus reduce costs.
“Our renewed partnership with Amdocs is a strategic move towards transforming our operational landscape and implementing an agile application development approach,” said VodafoneZiggo CIO Candice Dillon (above). “Together, we are focused on enhancing customer experiences, streamlining our operations, and expediting our time-to-market. We are committed to delivering unmatched value to our customers.”
“Delivering truly digital customer experiences is an important pillar in VodafoneZiggo’s strategy, and we’re thrilled to help them bring those experiences to market more quickly and efficiently,” said Amdocs group president of technology and head of strategy Anthony Goonetilleke.
Streamlining key to growth
Last week VodafoneZiggo saw its number of customers grow again in the mobile market and business fixed market as it announced increased turnover and operational operating results in its third quarter.
Turnover in the third quarter was virtually the same as that of the same quarter of 2022. EBITDA in the third quarter was €477 million on a total turnover of €1,034 million. In the second quarter of 2023, EBITDA was still €445 million with a turnover of €999 million.
EBITDA decreased by 4.1% compared to the third quarter of last year. This is in line with the expectation that EBITDA will be roughly € 100 million lower this year due to higher energy and salary costs.
The telco put this down to Revenues from the fixed network increased in the quarter. Ziggo put this down to recently introduced internet packages for new customers and an extra speed increase for all customers.
The importance of the Amdocs engagement to automate processes was highlighted by the fact that the telco said the broadband internet remains challenging and competitive. “We continue to work purposefully for our customers to execute our strategy to provide maximum value with our products,” said CFO Ritchy Drost.
“Our customers have world-class networks and the very best content offering in the Netherlands. To continue to improve this, we are once again investing more than 20% of our income back into our services and product innovations this quarter,” he added.
In May, the telco increased upload speeds by 40-50% and as of the latest upgrade, it can now offer customers packages with download speeds between 100Mbps and 1Gbps.
Government contracts
At the beginning of this quarter, VodafoneZiggo concluded a contract with the government – together with the Association of Dutch Municipalities. The deal was part of the Municipal Telecommunications (GT) contract for fixed communications that will see Vodafone Business also provide fixed services to municipalities for the next five years.
This means that VodafoneZiggo provides fixed services for more than 200 municipalities and safety regions in the Netherlands, in order to have a joint network. The telco said the GT Fixed Communications contract has been extended until the end of 2027.
VodafoneZiggo has started a trial together with municipalities, telecom providers and social organisations to reduce the growing digital divide by introducing a Digital Participation Package. 3% of Dutch households do not have a fixed internet connection at home, 11% do not have properly functioning equipment and almost 23% experience challenges participating in the digital world.
Last month, the telco’s long-standing CEO Jeroen Hoencamp announced his retirement. Hoencamp has led VodafoneZiggo since its formation in 2016 and has been a leader in the telecom industry for over 25 years. Prior to his current role, he served as CEO of Vodafone UK and Vodafone Ireland.
Liberty Global and Vodafone Group are looking for his successor.