AVERAGE MONTHLY revenue per user at mobile operator O2 slipped further during the first quarter and now stands at €43.40, down from €44.20 a year ago.

Service revenues of €222 million showed a decrease of just 0.7 per cent year-on-year as O2's customer base hit 1.663 million at the end of March.

The second largest mobile operator in the Republic added 16,805 net new customers in the quarter. 02 exclusively launched the Apple iPhone in mid-March, so the figures only include two weeks' sales for the device.

Average revenue per user (Arpu) for bill-pay customers was €75.50, down from €82 a year ago.

Pre-pay customers had an average spend of €26.70, compared to €28 a year ago.

The average monthly number of minutes used by customers was static at 240.

Data as a proportion of overall service revenues climbed slightly to 26.8 per cent from 26 per cent in the first quarter of 2007.

Although O2 does not reveal what percentage of data revenues are accounted for by text messages, 439 million texts were sent during the quarter. That was a 10 per cent increase on the previous quarter which would have included the Christmas period.

The Telefónica-owned operator also revealed it now has more than 50,000 subscribers to its mobile broadband service.

Telefónica yesterday reported a pre-tax profit of €2.3 billion.