In its latest financial statement, SFR reveals that it has lost 100,000 subscribers over the past 3 months. Unsurprisingly, this carnage after yet another rise in the prices of its mobile and Internet plans, the two most affected segments. Meanwhile, Free recorded an almost similar increase in subscribers. Coincidence?
Who sows the wind reaps the whirlwind ? It’s hard not to make the connection between the incessant price increases at SFR and the massive loss of subscribers suffered by the operator in recent months. This Wednesday, May 24, in fact, the latter published its financial result for the first quarter of 2023, in which one figure stands out in particular. In just three months, SFR admits having lost no less than 100,000 subscribers.
The operator now has 20.6 million subscribers on all of these packages. Note that this means that some users may have multiple plans with this one. As might be expected, the majority of this loss is at the level of mobile and Internet plans, since only 12,000 users have thrown in the towel on this segment.
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How to explain this massive flight of users? The context, first of all, is not really favorable for telecom operators. For the first time since 2020, Arcep has indeed noted a drop in SIM card activations this year, a sign that operators are having a hard time attracting new customers. In addition, it is very likely that SFR will suffer the backlash of its pricing policy.
In recent times, the operator has increased the cost of its packages several times, triggering the anger of its subscribers. However, at the same time, Free announces that it has gained 172,000 customers in the first quarter. Unlike its competitor, it can boast of having frozen the prices of its packages until 2027. It is therefore difficult to see this as a coincidence.
That being said, SFR is not yet in a delicate position from a financial point of view. Indeed, the operator recorded an increase of 0.4% in its turnover compared to the previous year.