Vodafone Group - Q3 2026
February 5, 2026
Transcript
Margherita Della Valle (CEO)
Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us today. Alongside me, I'm pleased to be joined by Pilar, our new Group CFO. Welcome, Pilar.
Pilar Lopez (CFO)
Thank you, Margherita. It's great to be with everyone today.
Margherita Della Valle (CEO)
Before going to Q&A, let me provide you, as usual, with a brief summary of our Q3 results. Overall, we continue to perform well and have maintained our good top-line momentum, having grown Group service revenue by 5.4% this quarter. This was supported by growth across both Europe and Africa, with continued growth in Germany, and strong contributions from both Africa and Turkey.
Moving to profitability, Group EBITDA grew by 2.3% in Q3 and 5.3% year-to-date, which is fully in line with our expectations and our trajectory to deliver the upper end of our FY 2026 guidance. Beyond these results, we continue to make good progress against our strategic priorities. In Germany, we continue to improve our customer experience. In mobile, our network test results have continued to improve despite having completed the migration of 12 million 1&1 customers, one of the largest in European telcos.
We now have more mobile customers using our network than any other operator in the country. In fixed, our NPS continues to grow quarter-after-quarter, and we have just increased upload speeds nationwide across our cable network. This has been supportive of our value strategy, while our price actions have impacted gross additions in the quarter. The improvement of our inflow revenue, with new customer ARPUs now 21% higher year-on-year, has stabilized consumer broadband revenues.
However, we still have more to do in what remains a competitive market environment. Moving to the U.K., following an exceptionally fast start, our integration and network investment plan is now well underway. Our initial network upgrades have been delivered ahead of schedule and are already enabling customers to benefit from greater mobile coverage and faster data speeds.
The progress that we have made in only seven months is already visible in independent network tests and has been noted by the U.K. regulator. However, this is just the start of our 10-year plan to invest GBP 11 billion to build U.K.'s leading 5G network. Stepping back, I remain very excited about the potential of this merger. Vodafone has more mobile assets than any other operator, is the fastest-growing fixed broadband provider, and we have clear line of sight on GBP 700 million of annual cost and CapEx synergies, plus opportunities to realize revenue synergies on top.
Turning to Africa, in December we announced that we would be acquiring a controlling stake in Safaricom, one of the strongest telcos on the continent. This transaction will strengthen our position in Africa even further, as it simplifies Vodacom and reinforces its leadership position. We have structural growth opportunities with rapidly expanding population, increasing data usage, and accelerating demand for digital services. We are in a unique position with our scaled networks, digital platforms, and admired brand.
Vodacom is already delivering a strong performance today, and it provides some of the most exciting opportunities across the group. Finally, turning to business, we have now completed the acquisition of Skaylink, which will support our growth in digital services across key areas such as cloud and security. In summary, as we enter the final quarter of the year, our performance has been good. Across the group, we are seeing Net Promoter Scores increasing, complexity reducing, and we are accelerating our opportunities in digital and financial services. These are solid foundations for our multi-year growth trajectory. To summarize, we are trading in line with our expectations, and we are on track to deliver the upper end of our FY 2026 guidance. With that, Pilar and I look forward to answering your questions.
Operator (participant)
Thank you, Margherita. As a reminder, please only pose one question to give all analysts a chance to speak this morning. Our first question today comes from Maurice Patrick at Barclays. Maurice, please go ahead.
Maurice Patrick (Managing Director)
Good morning, guys. Hopefully you can hear me well. Thanks for the intro comments. Maybe just diving straight into Germany, that's okay. I mean, if I look at slide four in the presentation, you show stabilization of service revenues. That's obviously helped by 1&1. You've got weaker net adds on the broadband side, but a stronger front-book ARPU, and you've talked about that value of volume. But investors asked a lot about the trajectory of EBITDA in Germany, specifically around this year and next. I think you were down 4% in the first half. Could you give us a sense of where you see the EBITDA landing for the second half of this year, and then thoughts into the stabilization, if that's the case, next year? Thank you.
Margherita Della Valle (CEO)
Sure. I'll maybe let Pilar lead on the trends this year and then give you a sense of how I see Germany evolving.
Pilar Lopez (CFO)
Yeah. So, I mean, you've seen our numbers. If we look into the second half of the year, the most important thing is it will be in line with the reiteration of our guidance, the EBITDA and free cash flow guidance for the group, and the Europe guidance that we have reiterated today. We expect the second half of the year, in terms of EBITDA performance, to be better than half one. We don't expect EBITDA to return to positive this year in half two.
I mean, you've seen continued ARPU pressure in mobile, TV headwinds, the acquisition and retention year-over-year based on prior year activities. There are also tailwinds into half two. That's why the better performance than in half one, the lapping of the MDU, the wholesale 1&1 completion, full run rate in Q4, and the lapping of the MVNO. So that's what you should expect for the second half of the year in Germany, in terms of EBITDA.
Margherita Della Valle (CEO)
So a better second half than, obviously, your question is, where are we going from here? Obviously, we will tell you more in May. Today is not the time in a quarterly results announcement to give a single market guide, but I think it's important to share what we see about the market and, as always, the moving parts. I will start to cover what we have really good visibility on for next year in Germany, and then what's still open for debate. On the areas where we have good visibility, I would call out four areas. The first one, as Pilar mentioned, in the near term, you should expect the TV headwind to continue. What you should expect also to continue into next year is the support to EBITDA from wholesale, obviously to a lower level than this year, but still positive and then I would add B2B.
The team is doing a great job in building a strong pipeline. You know how fast we are growing in digital services, but also beyond that. And so expect B2B to significantly improve as we move into next year. And then the fourth element is costs, as we probably have discussed before. Next year is the year, for a variety of reasons, where you should expect to see all the simplification actions that we have done on our cost base to show through the P&L.
So on these four areas, I would say we have good visibility. Where there is still a degree of uncertainty, inevitably, is the consumer market and what's happening in the market more broadly, which, of course, is not entirely into our control. And I would call out two different trends from what we see today. You mentioned it. We see an improvement in fixed broadband.
We see an improvement in our numbers. It's fair to say that, from what we see, the general market environment is also more supportive, so moving in the right direction. Mobile, which is in itself a key swing factor, of course, for the results, I would say so far no changes. What we continue to see is just the price moves, which were done roughly a year ago or more, that are washing through our base. This aspect around pricing still leaves a degree of uncertainty on next year, as you can imagine. What I can say is that even if nothing changes, you should expect our results to gradually benefit from all the actions you have seen us taking, focused on customer experience, focused on value. Expect continued improvement in this direction from our actions. The market, I think we will tell you more in May.
Maurice Patrick (Managing Director)
That's very clear. Thank you.
Operator (participant)
Thank you very much. Our next question today comes from Akhil Dattani from JPMorgan. Akhil, please go ahead.
Akhil Dattani (Head of European Telecoms Equity Research)
Hi, good morning. Thanks for taking the question. Margherita, maybe I could follow up on the prior question and just dig a little bit deeper into the German broadband message that you're giving us around value versus volume. I'd love to understand a bit better the conviction you have around that journey. And I guess, specifically, if you could talk us through the actions you've taken. You've mentioned in your slides another price up in January, and then how we should think about the way that impacts broadband losses going forward.
I guess it's hard for us to know, are there particular losses this quarter that sort of wash through going forward? So maybe you could give us a bit of a journey from that. I guess within answering it, could you help us understand the extent to which competitors are replicating that directional trend and any sort of important variables that you might be seeing in the Altnet market? Thanks a lot.
Margherita Della Valle (CEO)
Sure. So sort of big picture, what's going on in broadband? As you know, the market penetration has plateaued, and the only operators that today are seeing any meaningful growth are the Altnets in the rural areas. In that context, for us, just reiterating what you have heard before, it makes sense to focus on value. Now, there is one element of volume which is very important, which is churn from our perspective. And on churn, I need to say we are very pleased with our performance. Our fixed broadband churn in Germany, I may have mentioned it before, is now below the majority of all European markets. It's below the U.K. And we keep, quarter-after-quarter, seeing our Net Promoter Score on our cable network just beating another record. So that's moving all in the right direction.
As you know, on the back of the investments we have done in our network and in our processes. What you have seen this quarter is the impact on gross additions from the price moves we have cumulated over now a series of months. And actually, to your question on what's going to happen next, what I can say is that for Q4, given we have taken another price action just a week ago, you should expect, from what we see, similar trends on the gross adds side. What have we done on pricing? There is a slide in our presentation that summarizes it because it's been really a step-by-step movement. And we may have commented in the past about the beginning of that movement. Since March, we have increased effective pricing on DSL. We have reduced the promo durations across the board. We have taken out starting credits.
We have increased equipment cost, all the things you are familiar with. For Q3, this has led to an inflow ARPU level that is the best we have seen in at least three years and is, year-over-year, up 21%, which obviously is material. Now, I said we have moved again last week, and this is important because last week we have really done a more-for-more move across our whole cable portfolio in Germany. And this was coming with higher speeds, particularly higher uplink speeds nationwide, which have enabled us to do another step on pricing in a more-for-more fashion. Now, what we see then is that the value equation is working today. You see it also in our fixed line trends in the P&L.
Essentially, the drag on TV is still in there, but as you can see, it's slightly being now eroded because we have seen fixed broadband in consumer improving and is now stable. Now, you asked about what's happening around us. Based on what we see, clearly, the market will always be dynamic. But based on what we see today, we see also the market environment improving as we do our actions. In terms of more broadly, as I said, it's a dynamic market. But from my perspective, what you should always expect Vodafone to be doing is really maximize for overall service revenue trajectory. And that remains the absolute principle.
Akhil Dattani (Head of European Telecoms Equity Research)
Thank you very much.
Operator (participant)
Thank you. Our next question today comes from Robert Grindle from Deutsche Numis. Please go ahead.
Robert Grindle (Managing Director and Head of European TMT Reseach)
Good morning, and thank you. Perhaps taking a more group-wide, holistic than a single country view, in Q3, we saw OSR growth firmly positive in Europe for a second quarter, despite the tough comp in the U.K., and well into double-digit EM growth continuing. What can you say, if anything, and we're already a chunk through Q4, on your overall prospects for a full year 2027 and beyond? Are you feeling more or less optimistic based on the nine months to date? Thank you.
Margherita Della Valle (CEO)
Thank you, Robert. I mean, once more, it's going to be about moving parts because, of course, this is a quarterly update. But Pilar will tell you the direction of travel on these moving parts. To your question, what you will find is that it's all very consistent with our multi-year growth trajectory that we have been discussing since May. So maybe, Pilar, you can take those.
Pilar Lopez (CFO)
Yeah, Robert, thanks for the question. And yes, I mean, as Margherita was saying, early days to provide the exact detail. We will come back in May. But at a high level, we remain very confident on the multi-year outlook for adjusted free cash flow growth for 2027. Several components there that we need to take into account. From an EBITDA perspective, we expect continued good growth for the group overall. Margherita spoke in detail about the German trends. We also expect the U.K., the first meaningful cost synergies to be delivered in 2027, which is a very relevant fact. From an EBITDA perspective, emerging markets, I mean, typically, with lower inflation, are likely to slow down. That is something, again, that you need to take into account in terms of EBITDA. But as I said, continued good growth for the group overall into fiscal 2027.
Then in adjusted free cash flow, you obviously have CapEx. On that one, I mean, I'm happy to say that we remain very confident with the capital intensity, with the level of capital intensity that we have at the moment. In fiscal 2027, there will be a step up in the U.K. in line with that year being the peak of the investment program in the U.K. But again, all EBITDA and CapEx consistent with the multi-year growth trajectory that we've been sharing with you. Then you also need to take into account, below adjusted free cash flow, there are a number of moving parts. And the main ones for me to flag right now have to do, again, with the U.K. in terms of integration costs. Fiscal 2027 will be a full year of integration.
We guided before on the size of the integration and restructuring cost in the U.K. overall and the fact that it was going to be front-loaded. So you have to take that into account into fiscal 2027. And then in terms of spectrum, I think it's worth reminding everyone, there will be the second installment of the Turkey spectrum. And potentially, there could be some more spectrum in Egypt, where we have ongoing conversations. Beyond that, I mean, early to provide the exact levels. We will come back in May. And if you need any more in terms of the mechanics, investor relations can provide you more details if you need to.
Margherita Della Valle (CEO)
Thank you, Robert.
Operator (participant)
Thank you very much. Our next question today comes from Emmett Kelly from Morgan Stanley. Emmett, please go ahead.
Robert Grindle (Managing Director and Head of European TMT Reseach)
Yes. Good morning, everybody. I had a question, again, kind of on the group. So you're moving to a majority of Safaricom via Vodacom. And that obviously brings you control in Kenya, brings you M-Pesa and also a growth business in Ethiopia. So it looks like Vodafone and Orange are now kind of emerged as the big leaders in African telcos. Can you maybe just give a few thoughts on what you think this move brings to you in terms of the portfolio, in terms of the growth outlook for the group, technology? And given where your balance sheet is post the sales of Spain and Italy, whether Africa is an area where you could look at further portfolio expansion going forward? Thank you.
Margherita Della Valle (CEO)
Thank you, Emmett. In terms of opportunities in Africa, I think you have heard it in my introduction. We think we are in a really good position for making the most of the exciting growth opportunities in the continent. We have very healthy growth on population, data, demand for financial services, and in B2B, actually, strong demand now for digital services. And Vodacom, I would like to say, is what I would call the resident technology company in Africa, good and scaled network, but also good and scaled platforms for the continent. The reason why it was a natural step for us to move to a controlling position in Safaricom was that this further simplifies the Vodacom estate and also strengthens it. And in particular, we see big opportunities to continue across the continent to leverage our best practices, leverage our scale platforms.
I was actually just two weeks ago in Egypt, for example. And you might remember us having similar discussions when we merged Egypt into Vodacom a few years ago. We were in Egypt. And one of the outstanding elements of our performance there is Vodafone Cash, which, again, comes from cross-fertilizing idea and leveraging platforms across the continent. So I'm very happy with Africa. As you can imagine and you're right, it's taking a bigger role. It has a strong performance today, double-digit, guidance upgraded now probably a year ago, everything double-digit, and some of the most exciting growth opportunities.
Now, you mentioned M&A. And I think it's important to, however, sort of contextualize that from our perspective, M&A now is more about what I would call bolt-on acquisition in the B2B space, where we are increasing, expanding our capabilities. That sometimes is faster done with B2B acquisition, like you have seen with Skaylink. I think there could be more moves like this also in Africa.
Robert Grindle (Managing Director and Head of European TMT Reseach)
Very clear. Thank you.
Operator (participant)
Thank you very much. Our next question today comes from Polo Tang from UBS. Polo, please go ahead.
Polo Tang (Managing Director)
Thanks for taking the question. Just have one question on the U.K. broadband market because there's been lots of reports about potential consolidation with owners of VMO2 looking to acquire Netomnia and also TalkTalk starting an M&A process. So if there is consolidation, how do you think this will impact both Vodafone and also the broader UK broadband market, for example? Do you think pricing could improve, or do you expect there to be more competition? So any thoughts? Much appreciated.
Margherita Della Valle (CEO)
I think the general thought is that a degree of consolidation, obviously, in the current environment makes sense in that space. But what I can tell you is that we are looking at it from a Vodafone perspective. And from our perspective, we are really pleased with our position in the U.K., which is essentially a multi-partner play, wholesaling from a range of partners. And actually, this is a play in the U.K. But you can see it in different ways. We have the same objective, ultimately, in every market in which we operate, delivered in slightly different ways. But we are always keen to give our customers the access to the largest gigabit footprint available in the country. And the best way for doing this in the U.K. is to wholesale from multiple partners, Openreach, CityFibre, Community Fibre. Who knows? There could be more in the future.
With 22 million households, this is one of our key drivers for growth. So we expect to continue to manage the markets in exactly the same way. It's working for us. It will continue to work through a degree of consolidation. The general principle is maximum access to our customers to the gigabit footprint. You see it in Germany. Three out of four of German households have it through us. You now also see it in Turkey. It's our general approach to the market.
Polo Tang (Managing Director)
Thanks.
Operator (participant)
Thank you very much. Our next question today comes from James Ratzer from New Street Research. James, please go ahead.
James Ratzer (Head of the European Communication Services Research)
Yes. Good morning, Margherita and Pilar. Thank you for doing the call and taking the question. So the question I want to ask today is really about FWA, please. So firstly, in the U.K., just to kind of understand some of your near-term delivery and longer-term aspirations, it looks like in the quarter, your FWA adds fell to 11,000 from 21,000 the prior quarter. What's driven that? And do you see the scope for that to reaccelerate in the next few quarters and thoughts longer term? And also in Germany, do you see an opportunity to deploy more FWA in the rural areas there? Thank you.
Margherita Della Valle (CEO)
Thank you, James. Starting with the U.K., I mean, the short answer is yes. We expect FWA to continue to grow. One thing you need to keep in mind is that two things happen in Q3. It's a combination, actually, of seasonality. The quarter with December in it is never a strong quarter for FWA and also price competition around the Black Friday week, particularly around the lower end of the market in terms of speeds. I think both factors affected the 11,000 versus a higher number before. But equally, it will continue to grow.
Now, this being said, just as I may have done already last time when we had this discussion, certainly, we need to contextualize what we see in terms of FWA opportunity, which is, for us, essentially, the most important point is using FWA for our customers on the way to fiber, as we can be there now. And then when fiber gets there, connect them seamlessly. But the key focus overall, the key big numbers, let's put it this way, are always going to come from the fiber side of fixed broadband. But more growth ahead, for sure, and an opportunity for us in the U.K., for sure. Is it an opportunity also in Germany? I think this is a really good question. We have had, actually, an FWA product on the market in Germany for many, many years. It's there, yes, you might remember, GigaCube.
I would say it's a less lively market than the U.K. is. Two reasons, probably, that I can think of. On one end, just the depth, also historically, of our gigabit penetration with our cable network. I was saying just earlier to Polo that we cover with the full footprint, including the 5 million of fiber wholesale, three out of four German households. So Germany, from that perspective, was there first. And then I think maybe customer behaviors are also impacting. This also depends on trade-offs that they make between different products. But I think it's a good question still. And it makes sense to just reflect. I think all markets will have a degree of FWA. Then it depends on the level of coverage, mostly, how far developed it goes.
James Ratzer (Head of the European Communication Services Research)
Why do you see that as a migration to fiber? Because don't you make a higher gross margin on FWA than wholesale fiber?
Margherita Della Valle (CEO)
I think it's because, ultimately, there will always be, how can I say, layers of services with different levels of efficiency and effectiveness. And therefore, it's quite likely that for the majority of people, yes, that's fiber arrives into your city or your village. And there is a natural step towards that. There will always be areas that either will have fiber very late or never and therefore, that will remain permanent. But I don't think it's logical to think of it as a permanent feature. Again, I mean, we could discuss for long. There is also a type of customers, students, people who move a lot may find it very convenient, obviously. But if you are in a residential area, I think in the end, that's the frame we are looking at it with.
James Ratzer (Head of the European Communication Services Research)
Thank you.
Operator (participant)
Thank you very much. Our next question today comes from Andrew Lee from Goldman Sachs. Andrew, please go ahead.
Andrew Lee (Managing Director)
Yeah. Hi, everyone. Hi, Margherita. And hi, and welcome, Pilar. I had a question on towers and your thoughts on Vantage. So over the last year or so, and particularly a few months, we've seen towers derate a lot with concerns on contract renegotiation risk, consolidation risk, satellite risk. Do you share those concerns, both as an owner of Vantage and as Vodafone a customer of towers? And do you think now is a good time to buy in the rest of INWIT, given it's the cheapest it's been for a very long time? Thank you.
Margherita Della Valle (CEO)
Starting maybe from the end, I would say we are happy with our position in where we are from an INWIT perspective, specifically, of course. I mean, there will be different trends, as always, in the market, more broadly on the tower space. First of all, we are happy to have achieved our initial position that we were targeting with the full 50/50 in Vantage. And we are happy with how the Vantage growth is actually developing. You can see this in its financials. And it's a good contributor of dividends to the group. So happy with all of that. You are right. The tower market is evolving. And we think that there will be further possible changes across the footprint in which we operate in Europe with potential more movements towards consolidation.
And so in terms of our position within Vantage, I think that will really depend on how we see the market more broadly evolving and whether there are other opportunities strategically. We would consider those as they present themselves, for example, if there is an opportunity of consolidation. We are happy with the operations as they stand today, both sides. We will keep looking at the evolution of the market and assess at every point in time in the next few years what's the appropriate position for Vodafone.
Andrew Lee (Managing Director)
Just on INWIT, just specifically on INWIT, I mean, obviously, you're not going to say you want to buy it in today. This is a stock that you have historically said you might want to buy in the minorities over time. Obviously, the multiples have gone down a lot in terms of valuation. Is this an opportunity to be nimble and take advantage of that? Or it's not obvious that that's the case at this point in time?
Margherita Della Valle (CEO)
As I said, I'm pretty happy with where we are with INWIT. But of course, it's for the Vantage board to decide as it goes along what's the most appropriate position on all its participations.
Operator (participant)
Thank you very much. Our next question today comes from Joshua Mills from BNP Paribas Exane. Joshua, please go ahead.
Joshua Mills (Executive Director of Sector Head, Telecoms Research)
Hi, guys. Hopefully, you can hear me. I just want to dig into the German service revenue trends in a bit more detail. I think last quarter, you gave some helpful color on how much of a tailwind the 1&1 revenues were in the service revenue growth. I think last quarter, there's about EUR 80 million of revenues, which were incremental, expecting about EUR 100 million this year. If you could confirm whether that's the case, that would be very helpful.
Related to that, I think in the introductory comments, Margherita, you said we should expect the wholesale tailwind from 1&1 to continue. You also mentioned that the MDU headwind would have an impact. I just wanted to understand, are we now at the maximum MVNO revenues in this quarter for 1&1? Or will that continue to increase on a quarter-on-quarter basis as we get into Q4? Thirdly, are there any MDU revenues to fall out still? Because looking at the chart on the bottom left of slide 4, it looks like there was no real impact this quarter or last quarter. I had thought that all of those MDU headwinds were out of the business. Thanks.
Margherita Della Valle (CEO)
Thank you, Joshua. I think it's actually a simple answer because on MDUs, obviously, we have completed the transformation. And therefore, the new low impact is fully behind us. And then on 1&1, we are hitting run rate now, sorry, transfer completed in December. And so the EUR 0.1 billion of quarterly revenue run rate is achieved for now onwards. Now, this being said, obviously, as we go into a full year of revenues, obviously, this plus the fact that we have entirely lapped another wholesale element, which was the loss of Lyca, will be supportive to our trends next year. But maybe IR can help you with the full equation in more detail.
Joshua Mills (Executive Director of Sector Head, Telecoms Research)
Thanks.
Operator (participant)
Thank you very much. Our next question today comes from David Wright from Bank of America Merrill Lynch. David, please go ahead.
David Wright (Head of European Telecoms Equity Research)
Yes. I hope you guys can hear me. So my question, it's on Germany again, but a little more strategically. We can see the value now and support that the Heinz-Neiss deal has given. And it's a very margin-rich wholesale revenue stream. There's obviously a lot of debate in the market around Telefónica's M&A ambitions. And one obvious route for them would be to try and regain control of the asset.
I know in the past, you have pushed back a little on your sort of need to compete in such a scenario. But could you just talk to us about how you would consider the value of Heinz-Neiss to Vodafone as opposed to the value of maybe market repair? And obviously, you do have a lot of balance sheet headroom right now. You're giving EUR 2 billion back to shareholders in buyback. This is obviously a critical asset for you guys. I'm just interested in how you think about that trade-off if we saw the headline offer from TEF today? Thanks.
Margherita Della Valle (CEO)
Thank you, David. As you know, generally speaking, we don't particularly like to speculate on hypotheticals. But certainly, you raised the point on if consolidation was happening in this direction, how would you see it? And to that, I would respond that, first of all, I think it's important to keep in mind a little bit the history of the National Roaming Agreement. Just to reframe the timelines, we agreed to move the National Roaming Agreements from Telefónica to us in the summer of 2023.
It then took a good 12 months, as you might remember, to transform this agreement into a full-blown contract. And after that, well, we completed the migration effectively in December. So it took two and a half years from decision to full migration. So what if consolidation was happening in a direction that would bring the National Roaming Agreement outside of our perimeter?
Well, the way to think about it from our perspective is on a midterm. Again, timing is relevant. From a midterm perspective, there would be, of course, a risk on those revenues. By the way, keep in mind those revenues would not anyway remain exactly at the same level as today as 1&1 progresses its network build. But there would be a risk to those networks. The risk, as you mentioned, should be seen in conjunction with the conditions of the consolidation. Again, incredibly difficult to speculate today. But in any consolidation play, there are some changes. Those changes affect market dynamics. There is always a range of puts and takes that we would have to consider if that hypothetical in the midterm was playing out. That's as far as I can speculate with you today.
Robert Grindle (Managing Director and Head of European TMT Reseach)
I appreciate that answer, Margherita. Thank you.
Margherita Della Valle (CEO)
Thank you.
Operator (participant)
Thank you very much. Our next question today comes from Paul Sidney from Berenberg. Paul, please go ahead.
Paul Sidney (Associate Director)
Yeah. Thank you very much. Good morning. And thanks for taking the question. It's really on the value over volume strategy that you flagged in Germany, which I was personally very pleased to hear. And we've seen a number of operators over the past 12 months giving strong indications of wanting to play that value game to investors and competitors, DT and yourselves in Germany, KPN in the Netherlands, Swisscom in Switzerland. The list goes on. But do you think this is now the way forward and the approach we should take in all of your markets for both mobile and broadband? I appreciate emerging markets might be a little bit different, but certainly for Europe. Is this the approach the industry should take, in your view, to try and get their whole market up in value and not obsess about volumes? Thank you.
Margherita Della Valle (CEO)
Obviously, a very open question, Paul. But what I would love to see is I cannot speak for the market. But what I would love to see and encourage and you have heard me, I think, in November making the same speech is I would love to see telcos' performance judged on value, overall value, service revenue trends, yeah, and move beyond the sort of headline of net adds. Now, as I heard me say before, this is particularly true for mobile because in mobile, the range of quality of what is behind SIM numbers is just so huge that I think it's truly entirely distracting. But considering the full equation of value is also very important, as we discussed earlier, in broadband because ultimately, volumes are only half of the revenue equation.
I think as operators, our job is to always, in dynamic markets, manage that equation for the best overall trajectory. So it would be fantastic, I would say, if we moved from an analysis and reading perspective to a balanced view that mixes all the KPIs together. Certainly, that's what we do. And that's what makes sense in our markets, not just look at one side of the equation.
Paul Sidney (Associate Director)
Great. Appreciate it. Thank you very much.
Operator (participant)
Thank you very much. We have time for one more question today. That comes from Carl Murdock-Smith from Citigroup. Carl, please go ahead.
Carl Murdock-Smith (Telecoms Equity Research Analyst)
That's great. Thank you. I'd love to hear your comments on the recent EU Digital Networks Act and also the Cybersecurity Act, in particular, your thoughts on the potential for spectrum period elongation and also on the usage of high-risk vendors. What kind of impact could the proposals make in the medium and longer term? Thanks.
Margherita Della Valle (CEO)
Thank you, Carl. I think it's worth saying that this year is probably an important moment because after 10 years in which we didn't see much change, this year, we would have the opportunity in the EU to see reform for telcos, which, as you know, is very much needed. I would say we are judging all the proposals that are coming through. It's important to say we are just at the beginning of the processes. And as you know, it may take quite some time to get to a conclusion and to know exactly the direction we are taking. But to tell you about our reactions to what is going on, we judge, if you want, the direction of travel in three areas: consolidation and competition, investment and innovation.
On consolidation, as you know very well, no news at this stage. We have to wait for the merger guidelines review. It looks like we will not see any real-world impact from any changes until at least 2027. On investments, the news are mixed. You called out the important parts. On one end, we look very positively at the idea of perpetual spectrum licenses with automatic renewals that would create a much better environment in terms of certainty for investment. On the other end, the draft Cybersecurity Act is actually injecting a degree of uncertainty. Now, we are only at the beginning of a very, very long conversation because that is in the space of security, so firmly in the limit of the member states. We could expect long discussion between the Commission, the Parliament, the member states.
And what we will be engaged on is to make sure that, actually, we bring clarity because it's really important for us to manage any change in the context of our long-term investment cycle. And then the third point, which is innovation, I would say some positive news there, less maybe in the spotlight. But of course, much more to do. Again, we will be vocal in this direction. The positive news are around single-market steps because we have a proposal for passporting, which is really useful for us for our digital platforms like IoT, which work across country, and then also satellite, again, very important for our strategy, single satellite authorization across the EU that really simplifies our world. But I said that's really not enough.
The one area which is something I keep pushing for is net neutrality in Europe, still even in the current draft, a sort of one-size-fits-all approach, which then creates obstacles to driving innovation in B2B, in particular, through slicing and other services. Now, all of this I'll go back to where I started is still very much in draft. As you know, with European processes, it will take some time until we actually know where we land.
Carl Murdock-Smith (Telecoms Equity Research Analyst)
That's great. Thank you very much.
Margherita Della Valle (CEO)
Thank you.
Operator (participant)
Thank you very much. This concludes our Q&A session today. I would now like to hand back to Margherita for any closing remarks.
Margherita Della Valle (CEO)
Sure. Thank you all for joining us today, as usual. In summary, as you have seen, we are performing in line with our expectation. We will close the year at the upper end of our guidance range. Our operational progress is consistent with our multi-year growth trajectory. We look forward to seeing you all for our full-year results in May. Thank you.