Telefónica Deutschland (O2 Germany) says 2022 has got off to a flier, despite Russia's invasion of Ukraine and rising inflation.

"We have confirmed our sustainable momentum in the first quarter and have started strongly into fiscal 2022," said CEO Markus Haas in prepared remarks.

"Currently, we do not see any direct impact of the terrible war in Ukraine and the weakening macroeconomic development on our operating business."

Figure 1: O2 Germany's revenue and OIBDA are up, helped by a surge in new mobile post-paid adds.
(Source: Telefónica)

Underlying the feel-good factor, O2 Germany confirmed its full-year 2022 outlook for revenues and operating income before depreciation and amortization (OIBDA).

Turnover through 2022 is expected to grow at a low single-digit percentage rate (€7.77 billion/US$8.2 billion in FY21), while OIBDA is also expected to grow at the same pace year-on-year (€2.4 billion/$2.5 billion FY21).

For Q1 FY22, revenue was up a respectable 5.2% year-on-year – helped by a 287,000 surge in new mobile post-paid adds during the quarter – to €1.95 billion ($2.1 billion).

O2 Germany further claimed that Q1 FY22 OIBDA, "adjusted for special factors" – which were not really explained in the interim report – "developed disproportionately to revenue thanks to an improvement in margins." It was up 7.2%, year-on-year, to €602 million ($633 million).

OIBDA margin, again adjusted for those special items, improved to 30.9% from 30.3% in the prior-year period.

Net profit during Q1 clocked in at €27 million ($28.5 million), mopping up the €40 million ($42.2 million) splurge of red ink – largely due to "COVID-19 headwinds" – found on Q1 2021 results.

Just a quick reminder, we have 10,000 5G antennas

O2 Germany didn't waste the Q1 results opportunity to again wheel out the fact that it has some 10,000 live 5G antennas humming in its network, reaching around 40% of Germany's population. More than half of them operate at C-Band (3.6GHz).

Mallikarjun Rao, CTIO and member of the executive board at Telefónica Deutschland (O2 Germany), in a recent interview with Light Reading, said C-Band antenna rollout was quickening.

"Today, in the last 12 months, we were able to deliver 5G in 3.6GHz in about 200 cities," he said

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Rao anticipated that O2 Germany, by the end of the year, will have at least 50% of the country covered with a macro network delivering "real 5G" with a combination of 700MHz, midband (1800MHz) and C-band spectrum.

Offering 5G private campus networks to different industry verticals is another area O2 Germany is looking at.

"There are use cases coming up and we are able to deliver a value for the customers," said Rao.

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— Ken Wieland, contributing editor, special to Light Reading