TPG Telecom hails return to growth

TPG Telecom says the headwinds of 2022, including NBN margin challenges and the impact of the pandemic, have passed as it turned in revenue growth of 1.5 percent to pass $4.4 billion, and $513 million in profit.

CEO Iñaki Berroeta said its mobile and enterprise and wholesale divisions delivered strong growth in customer numbers for the first time since the TPG-Vodafone merger.

Consumer mobile added 300,000 subscribers in the 2022-23 financial year.

Consumer broadband subscriber numbers were steady, he said.

Migration of NBN customers to TPG’s fixed wireless service helped reduce the consumer cost base, with the total number of fixed wireless now over 170,000, more than double the 80,000 reported at the end of the previous financial year.

TPG’s enterprise and wholesale business also turned in a strong result, with $150 million in customer wins in the year with an average contract length of three years.

Total enterprise and wholesale revenue was $998 million.

Berroeta said TPG remains confident that enterprise can reach $1 billion income, but said the ACCC's decision to block its proposed multi-operator core network (MOCN) deal with Telstra would delay that milestone.

He repeated TPG’s assertion that the MOCN deal would have given regional customers price and product competition, and would have put TPG close to Telstra and Optus in terms of its regional footprint.

“There is a lot of public benefit … with an immediate uplift for us”, Berroeta added.

The company is not planning for the contingency of an unfavourable decision in the appeal currently before the Australian Competition Tribunal, he said.

“We are concentrated in getting this tribunal decision in June in our favour, and we are really not thinking of alternative options at this stage.”

Berroeta highlighted an “ambitious but necessary program of work” in IT systems transformation.

This, he said, includes “simplifying customer platforms, payment gateways and payment systems, and investing in our networks”.

Its contact centre platforms have been rationalised, its payment gateways have been streamlined from three down to one, and 11 legacy IT systems have been decommissioned.

The transformation will “need to accelerate” for TPG to stay flexible enough to respond to customer demands.

It’s a significant part of TPG’s overall capex spend plan of $961 million, Berroeta said.