Telefonica saw the end of 2015 impacted by one-off charges which hit its bottom line, although there were a number of more encouraging signs for the future.

“If 2015 has been a very positive year, in 2016 growth and data monetisation will accelerate, while we maximise the efficiencies from integration and simplification, and we boost our innovation and big data capabilities,” Cesar Alierta, executive chairman, said.

For the fourth quarter, the company reported a net loss of €1.83 billion, compared with a prior year profit of €303 million, on revenue that was flat at €11.88 billion.

The company noted a charge of €3.12 billion was booked in the fourth quarter, as part of a “transformation and simplification process” it is undertaking, including €2.9 billion related to its business in Spain.

For the full year, Telefonica reported a net income of €2.75 billion, down 8.5 per cent, on revenue of €47.22 billion, up 8.7 per cent on a reported basis. Again, the Q4 charges were noted as impacting the bottom line.

It said that at the end of 2015 it had 322.3 million total connections across fixed and mobile, with an “outstanding behaviour of the higher value services”. Fibre clients increased by 3.5 times, LTE accesses tripled, while pay TV access increased by 62.6 per cent.

Mobile connections totalled 247.1 million, down slightly due to a more restrictive calculation of the prepaid base in Brazil. Contract subscriber growth was seen across all regions.

LTE penetration was 12.5 per cent, with record additions in Q4 of 6.1 million. Mobile data revenue grew 18.7 per cent in organic terms during the three months, to represent 42 per cent of mobile service revenue, driven by growing smartphone and LTE use.

It also said its diversification was evident in its revenue structure: Spain, Germany and Brazil generated 66 per cent of revenue in 2015, while its Latin America business generated 30 per cent – both percentages being stable year-on-year.

The company is forecasting revenue growth in excess of 4 per cent in 2016.