Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by. I am Geilis, your chorus call operator. Welcome, and thank you for joining the OTE conference call and live webcast to present and discuss the second quarter 2023 financial results. All participants will be in listen only mode, and the conference is being recorded. The presentation will be followed by a question and answer session. Should anyone need assistance during the conference call, you may signal an operator by pressing star and zero on your telephone. At this time, I would like to turn the conference over to Mr. Michael Tsamaz, Chairman and CEO, Mr. Babis Mazarakis, Chief Financial Officer, and Mr. Evrikos Sarsentis , Head of IR and M&A. Mr. Tsamaz, you may proceed.
Good morning or good afternoon to all of you. This morning we reported a solid second quarter in line with our expectations, confirming our steady growth as we adapt successfully to the new competitive challenges in the Greek market. Greek service revenues, including retail, fixed, data communications, and mobile, were roughly unchanged in the quarter, an improvement compared to the past two quarters. This reflects continued growth in mobile from both postpaid and prepaid and improving trends in fixed. This resilience is commendable. In a situation where total market revenue per user has dropped, we're well aware of our customers' needs towards their wallets, and we'll continue to offer them the best value proposition. We have built our reputation on the quality of our technology and our services. That is something that is confirmed in survey after survey and something we will not compromise.
We're pleased to observe quarter after quarter that the vast majority of our customers feel the same way. We will continue to work hard in this direction. Improving trends in broadband drive the stabilization of retail fixed services. Our broadband market share remained constant. The deployment of our fiber to the home infrastructure is proceeding at pace. We already reached more than every fifth line in Greece, and we have installed more than 80% of the country's total fiber to the home lines. More than 80% of the country's total fiber to the home lines. This is important to secure both our wholesale and retail market shares. Fiber to the home penetration is also on the rise, and we're continuing to upgrade customers to higher broadband speeds.
As a result, we account for more than 70% of all fiber to the home subscribers in Greece. As you know, being first in capturing the fiber to the home subscriber is critical.
In addition to the resilient retail services, strong performances in other revenue streams and notably in ICT services to businesses and public administration, resulted in higher total revenues in Greece, up to more than 2%. Greek EBITDA was also up by nearly 1%. A less favorable revenue mix is the main reason of a slower growth than in the top line, and some of that growth is attributable to lower margin business-to-business services and to international wholesaling, while some higher margin wholesale revenues are down. Regarding our cost base, we had a sharp drop in payroll this quarter, part of which is permanent and part one-off.
Overall, we are maintaining our strict cost discipline. We've also negotiated a large part of our energy supplies for next year. Obviously, at somewhat higher price ties, it has been... It has the benefit of raising our visibility over future expenses. Looking ahead to the second half of the year, we should continue getting some tailwinds from the positive economic situation in Greece. In this context, we expect similar trends to continue, thanks in particular to positive momentum in our mobile activities. Our advanced 5G networks and superior customer service should help us secure our share on the market. In fixed, we also expect current improving trends to endure as we pursue the rollout of fiber to the home network and promote its utilization.
We have the right initiatives to encourage growth in broadband, and that should be further supported by government fiber subsidies, which is not expected until the end of the year. ICT revenues should also remain substantial, reflecting strong demand from public and private act sectors as Greece pursues its broad progress in digitalization. Though they carry lower margins, these projects are also appreciable from a strategic standpoint. The wholesaling business is more difficult to forecast, but there's other players build their fiber infrastructure in Greece. There is no doubt that part of our national wholesaling revenue base will gradually decline. We are seeing further growth in the new businesses that carry the Cosmote brand into neighboring territories. Our basic payment system is gaining traction, with total users now reaching 135,000. We run a tight ship and intend to continue doing so.
We've been able to maintain a high level of profitability in an increasingly competitive environment by being vigilant and agile and always adapting our cost base to future business conditions as we see them. For the remainder of the year, there are many moving parts, but we are prepared for all scenarios, and we will continue investing in our systems and in our brands for the future. Once again, we can confirm our full year outlook. CapEx is still a touch low in the first half mark. However, we expect to see a significant push, particularly in FTTH in the second half, which will bring the full year total of last year's, at last year's level of EUR 640 million. As for our test 2023 shareholder ratio, we're also confirming, like we did last quarter, the numbers we indicated at the year-end results.
Now I'll ask Babis to review our second quarter performance. Babis?
Thank you, Michael. Hello to all of you on our call. Second quarter group revenues were up 1%, reversing the trend of the first quarter. Revenues in Greece were up more than 2%, as mobile, ICT, and wholesale more than offset an erosion in parts of retail fixed services, which by the way, was milder than in the prior three quarters. In Romania, at - 11%, the drop in revenues was in line with Q1 and still reflects the discontinuation of the MVNO business following the sale of the fixed business in 2021, as well as mobile termination rate cuts and some promotional initiatives of previous quarters. Group adjusted EBITDA after leases was down nearly 2%, reflecting the performance of Romania, where in addition to the factors I just mentioned, our mobile subsidiary incurred a sharp increase of energy costs.
In Greece, EBITDA was up nearly 1%. In Greece, as I pointed out, revenues were up across the board, apart from, from retail fixed services, which recorded the mildest drop over the past four quarters, at less than 4% or less than 3%, including data communications. This means that going forward, the comps will be possibly easier, already incorporating the impact of certain initiatives from last year. Once again, the bulk of the decrease comes from legacy voice. In TV, subscriber numbers were stable at close to 650,000 in a season when sports programming represents a lesser draw. Our resilient broadband revenues base is a testimony that our speed increases of last year have fully paid off. We added another 9,000 customers during the quarter, bringing penetration of solar base to just short of 87%.
Reflecting our focus on migrating customers from copper to fiber, we recorded 25,000 fiber additions in Q2, all from FTTH. In fact, FTTH additions number 28,000, resulting in a total FTTH subscriber base of 194,000. This is a year-on-year increase of more than 100,000, even though we are comparing with a period during which the market enjoyed the benefit of state subsidies to the final FTTH customer. Fiber to the home penetration at the end of the quarter reached 19% of Cosmote, a sharp increase from the second quarter last year of 14%. You see, we are holding our ground in a changing competitive landscape by leveraging our advanced infrastructure and top customer service offerings. Other fixed revenues were up nearly 18%. We had yet another excellent quarter in ICT, with a solid pipeline which should continue supporting this business line ahead of us.
A word now on wholesale revenues, which were up in the quarter after a sharp fall in Q1. Most of this increase comes from low margin international transit, while domestic wholesale declined as other players build their own fiber infrastructure. Greek mobile service revenues were up more than 2%, with both prepaid and postpaid contributing to the growth. Despite increased competitive pressures, all mobile trends are generally going to the right direction. Most importantly, we are preserving our customer base, particularly when it comes to postpaid. In prepaid, we've had good take-up for our summer offers. All in all, our mobile More strategy, combined with network superiority, are working and continuing to attract customers and support profitable and sustainable growth.
This is also evident in our positive data KPIs. Note that average monthly usage, data usage, exceeded 10 GB per user this quarter, which is up 45%. Regarding our 5G network, we have exceeded 85% population coverage and should reach 90% by year-end, with Athens already close to 100% and other major metropolitan areas not far behind. Let's now turn to what we've done on the cost side in Greece. Total operating expenses, excluding depreciation and amortization and one-offs, were up nearly 4% in the quarter. Costs directly linked with the top line, including third-party fees, which are related to the jump in ICT revenues and the connection costs, are mainly responsible for most of this increase, while we continue to exercise stringent cost control measures across the board. Personnel expenses declined 10% this quarter.
Part of this decline is baked in and is due to savings from our exit retirement plans, and part of it is one-off due to the new labor agreement with the union, which eliminated certain legacy benefits that had been provisioned in the past. On the energy side, we are working on securing higher visibility for part of our energy requirements in 2024. Although inevitably at higher costs and already likely to affect the second half of the current year. Budget provisions were down again this quarter, as they were in Q1, reflecting a much improved collection record over the past several quarters. All told, first quarter adjusted EBITDA after leases were up almost 20% to EUR 322 million, yielding a healthy margin at 40.9%.
Turning now to Romania, where total revenues were down 11%, roughly in line with a drop in the first quarter of the year, and for the same reasons. In addition to the cutthroat competitive environment, which demands more customer retention efforts, we are still dealing with the impacts of mobile termination rate cuts and the loss of the MVNO contract. The impact from the MVNO services should be almost nil from Q3 of this year and onwards. Total operating expenses, excluding depreciation, amortization, and one-offs, were down more than 4% in the quarter, following the drop in revenues, notably due to lower connection and handset costs. The cost base was negatively affected by the increase in energy costs, up approximately EUR 2 million due to the removal of the price cap.
As a result, Telekom Romania Mobile adjusted EBITDA after leases was nearly EUR 5 million in the quarter, down from close to EUR 14 million in Q2 of last year. As far as the rest of the group P&L is concerned, it is mainly business as usual this quarter again. Interest expense is down marginally, income taxes are slightly down, The net income is up nearly 5%, as it was in the first quarter. Turning to cash flow, adjusted CapEx is down less than 1%, is back to a normative level this quarter after a sharp drop in Q1, as we intensify fiber to the home deployment and to meet our year-end targets. That's why we are confirming the full year EUR 640 million guidance for CapEx.
Free cash flow after lease was down 8% at EUR 144 million, mainly on lower EBITDA in Romania. In the first six months, free cash flow is down just 2% at EUR 370 million. Our full year guidance remains unchanged at approximately EUR 500 million. Neither are we changing our shareholder remuneration guidance of EUR 425 million. The final dividend was paid out last month. We are a third of the way in our 2023 share buyback program of EUR 175 million. To conclude, the second quarter was robust and confirms the validity of our strategy in Greek fixed mobile in a heated competitive landscape.
In Romania, while we have to bear the adjustments from several largely external factors, we are steadily strengthening our cu- subscriber base and driving some encouraging ARPU increases that should support a much improved outlook. On this note, Michael and myself and our colleagues around the table are ready to take your questions. Operator?
Ladies and gentlemen, at this time, we will begin the question and answer session. Anyone who wishes to ask a question may press star followed by one on their telephone. If you wish to remove yourself from the question queue, then you may press star and two. Please use your headset when asking your question for better quality. Anyone who has a question may press star and one at this time. One moment for the first question, please. The first question is from the line of Draziotis Stamatios with Eurobank Equities. Please go ahead.
Yeah, hello there, and thank you for taking my questions. A couple from my side, please. Firstly, I was just a bit surprised that in your press release, you are mentioning that you expect similar trends in the second half of the year. I'm just saying that because you also said that the comparative is easier in H2, given you were hacking quite substantial year-on-year EBITDA growth in the first half of the year. Especially for fixed line, you will be lapping 5% revenue declines registered in H2 last year. Just wondering, what exactly does similar trends mean? How should we interpret this?
My second question relates to this public consultation regarding the prospect of indexation of tariffs. Just wondering, how did this go? Have you discussed further the matter with government officials, especially as there has been a new finance minister taking over since July? Do you feel the government is positive to the idea of inflation index to retail price hikes at some point in the next few quarters? These are my questions. Thank you.
Can management hear us?
Okay, good. Yes, thank you for the questions, and let me take the first question, which is the trends in half two. I can say that we are quite consistent in our messages that as we were also in Q1 in the release of Q1 results, that the direction of the various segments of our business is running as we were expecting. Meaning that, we know that there are depression on the fixed side, we know that we see that our commercial offerings and customer experience in mobile drives, keeps driving the mobile. Which is something that we all expect to continue in the second half, but obviously this has to do with the reaction in the market and then the competitive pressure.
It is indeed that fixed, we expect to have a more favorable comparables in towards the end of the year, Q3 and Q4, mainly. Because of, we'll be comparing ourselves with quarters that are had some the first stages of the competitive challenges. On the other side, the main revenue drivers, we were very explicit, was, is the ICT rate, which is obviously at a much lower margin than the other one than the other lines. Also we are, as we said, losing the the whole, the national wholesale revenue, naturally, because of migration of lines to their own networks of the other operators as, as they develop their own network.
This trends, we are expecting to continue in the coming, in the coming next quarters. Also under the assumption that competitive environment will not get worse. Of course, if it gets better, it's better, it's good, but will not get worse. I think we are consistent with the trends in half two. It also remains to be seen, to be realized, in the markets, in the various segments. Also, for the cost cutting, we are continuing along the rationalization, as we have discussed also and determined in our numbers. There is elements of the expensive lines that are increasing because of the top line increase, like ICT and connectivity, and the international traffic in the connectivity part.
This also are reflected there. That's why we confirm our cash flow generation for the year, because we see that the trajectory of all these trends, more or less being in, fully in line with, what we had also discussed in Q1. Furthermore, regarding to your question on the CPI within the contract period of the customer and the consultation that had been taking place in the past weeks.
What we have to say on this is that, okay, it's, the consultation was related to the fact that the Greek regulatory code, let's say, on how whether company should would be allowed to enforce price increases based on inflation during the contract period or not, is not in line with the European directives. The aim was, the discussion was, you know, how to, to, implement the European directives. In fact, we're quite different compared to all other EU countries for this. Now, the government officials have stated that they are not in favor, in favor of changing this or in, in, complying with the European directives. They prefer to leave the status as it is.
What we can say on this is that we have to keep in mind that in recent years, the inflation increases in other European countries was quite high. Recently, you had more than 9% inflation, and if we look at the basket of consumers, which of consumed items, which constitute the, let's say, the inflation index, we will see that the only service that did not have any increases in this basket over the year was the telecom services. In fact, contrary to all the items that are included in the basket, which were increased by approximately an average of 9%, as it is published by the Hellenic Statistical Authority, the telecom services were declining by 2.44%.
In fact, we were the only industry that had a reduction in our prices instead of increasing our prices. This is an effect which has influenced our industry. It has been absorbed in many ways by our say in, and also by the initiatives that we have undertaken. The reality is that the reality is that in the last three years, we had to face increases in all, all our cost lines because of the international inflation. Okay, in as far as our company goes, you have seen our results. We have, we managed to offset these increases by reducing our costs, by reducing our exposure, let's say, to various activities which were not really, which we thought we could s top, in order to be able to offset any, any increases that we have had in the inflation.
So far, despite the fact that we have the high inflation period, we managed quite well to, to contain our, our cost base and and defend our bottom line. For the future, it's not something that a cost cut, like, that caught us off guard, or it's not something that we cannot live with. We will manage with the situation as it is under this status. In fact, keep in mind that, you know, various, you know, if a company wants to manage its costs, you know, probably it has to look into the various promotions that they offer and probably, you know, or discounts or whatever, and can... There are many, many, many, quite a few measures that a company can take in order to manage, effects that may have from inflation.
That's, that's very clear. Just, just to, to, to clarify, so, the, the, the government effectively has, has, totally ruled out, indexation, so they, they've not just hit the pause button, they, they, they've just-
No, we don't have a, we don't have a total rule out as you...
Mm-hmm.
stated. It's just, you know, the, the, the question was, or the consultation was whether there should be an adaptation to the European directive or not. This is something which is not going to happen for the time, as far as we're concerned, so.
Got it. Okay.
Okay.
Thank you very much. Thank you.
Okay.
Next question is from the line of Patrick Maurice with Barclays. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Hi, guys. Thank you for taking the question. Just come from my side, please. During the call, you made a few comments around wholesale loss, and I think the point you were trying to make was, as others build the fiber infrastructure in their p- and presumably you, you're talking about Vodafone and Wind Hellas, that you'll see lower wholesale revenues. I just wondered if you could expand a bit on that in terms of, you know, how big is that wholesale revenue you expect to lose, how quickly you think you'll lose it, and, you know, what, what sort of magnitude or drivers should we think about in terms of the size of that?
Just on this second question, you made the observation in your prepared remarks around the fiber penetration, and you talked about how the penetration rate has been going up significantly since last year. On the first earnings call, so first quarter call, you talked about how some of the more mature cohorts are around sort of 50% penetration now. Just curious to understand if that sort of shape of penetration is changing, or if you're still seeing the same level of take-ups from the new cohorts as you drive fiber further for the base. Thank you very much.
Thank you for the questions. On the wholesale, the wholesale revenues are made of two distinct, let's say sources. One is the international traffic, which bears minimum, because minimum margin, because it's basically a trading business. The national wholesale, which is, which has a good margin because it's service offered in the in in the local market. The comment was that while the international traffic, due to its nature, being a trading one, is represents some, I would say, peaks and valleys in terms of quarters. This quarter, we had an increase on that one, versus the equivalent quarter of last year. For the wholesale, that's something that we have also reiterated in the previous quarters.
There is a, let's say, a natural decline of, of the, of these revenues in the area of EUR 2 million towards this quarter. Which comes from the reduction of the amount of lines that we sell to the other operators, since some of them, they are migrating into their own network. It's not something that is new. It's been there, and it's something that also works in the, in the economics. Regarding the fiber to the home, I think that what, what we reported, this 19% of utilization we have reported in June is the overall, dividing just the customers, total customers, divided by total homes passed.
Obviously, since the, the, the expansion of the network runs much faster than the take-up of the service, because that, that's the massive rollout that, that we are doing, the utilization number is also bearing this impact. The 50%, which still holds, is for the areas where we passed the fiber to the home three years ago. We continue to see this gradually being as being achieved as we progress in the time. We also expect that, let's say, on a going case, on a going concern, after we've completed the network, the total utilization will certainly reach those levels, if not exceed them. Because it will be the main network that we have out in the market, where, as the time goes by.
Thank you. Just as a quick, as a quick follow-up, sorry. You talked about a EUR 2 million decline this quarter as other operators migrate to their own networks. How much is that sort of current pool of wholesale revenues that is applicable that way, so we can understand maybe on a three or five-year view, what sort of decline we could see, please?
Oh, the total pool as we show in the account is about EUR 200 million.
Okay, good. Thank you.
The next question is from the line of Memisoglu Osman with Ambrosia Capital. Please go ahead.
Hello, many thanks. Just a few ones on my side. First, following up on this, just to clarify, this is EUR 2 million quarterly figure, I guess we should assume for the foreseeable future. That's first one. I see you have a relatively sharp increase on depreciation this quarter. I just wanted to check if that's the new figure to work with or if there's any one-offs that we should consider. The final one on my side, regarding the fiber coupons and the outlook for them and any color on timing. Thank you.
Thank you for the questions. Well, this is something on the wholesale, yeah, that's the rate that we foresee, because it's a, a kind of steady part for on, on, on the wholesale. The on the D&A, yes, there is increase. This is due to the it's a one-off, because we consolidated some of our headquarters buildings into one, so we had to depreciate the, the, the remaining part of the one that ceased to, to be serviced. Regarding fiber coupon, this is something that is being worked in consultation with the government, and we expect this to to come live towards the end of the year, maybe beginning of 2024.
Okay, it's not in your 2023 numbers then? I mean, the guidance you've shared doesn't really assume any benefits from this, right?
No, no, no. It will be mostly, even if it comes to the 2023, it will be towards the end of the year, so it's mainly a 2024 gain.
Got it. Thank you.
Thank you.
The next question is from the line of Ierodiaconou, George with Citigroup. Please go ahead.
Yes, good afternoon, thank you for taking my questions. The first one is on energy. Earlier, Babis, you mentioned the fact that you've now hedged beyond 2023, perhaps at slightly higher rates. Do you mind just giving us a summary of how much you've hedged in the coming years, and maybe if you can give us a bit of an idea of the financial impact that we should expect? My second question is on CapEx, and you mentioned the fact that the run rate should accelerate in the second half as you build more FTTH. I know it may be a bit early to talk about 2024, but I would be interested to hear from you if there, what other drivers are could take CapEx a bit higher or lower over the course of next year.
Then, final question I had was around pricing moves. You mentioned the More-for-More in the presentation, particularly mobile. If you can give us any idea in terms of the timing of when you are thinking of making some of these changes to our tariff plans. If I could ask one other thing is around the voucher program for fixed broadband, whether there is any update on that at all. Thank you.
Thank you for the question, George. Let's start with the energy part. I think, if I can also repeat a little bit what we said in the speech. We, for 2024, actually, at the end of 2023, we will be over with our two-year previous deal that we had, which was done basically at lower rates than the market because it was done earlier in 2021. Now we are, we are in a deal for 2024 at a favorable rate, but admittedly higher than 2023 because the difference in energy prices has been evident.
The effect on 2024 on the energy bill per se, is going to be increased versus 2023. The other savings that we are enjoying from the other lines, like the rest of the transformation, will cover this increase. That's for the energy part. On the CapEx, it's natural to have a more intense CapEx spending in half two, because all the works that are being done, they take some time before they are completed. The elements of half two will be higher versus the elements of half one.
This is something because we, we are, as, as we get the, the license in the of the of constructing the new areas, this also accelerates a little bit, the timing of the additional compact. Overall, this, this doesn't mean increase in CapEx at all. It means that shifting between the two halves of the year. For 2024, we stay in line with what we have discussed in the previous periods, that 2023 and 2024 will be basically the two years with biggest CapEx, because it's the two years that actually we aspire to have almost close to 800,000 compact in the two years combined.
Therefore, we don't change any of our initial guidance here and direction. On the pricing moves, I think it's not, they're not pricing moves, they are actually More-for-More, as you said, it's value driven propositions to our customer base, which we are continuing, we are doing. It's not something that will be done anew, it's something that is already done. It's being, it's being intensified with campaigns like pre-to-post migration and More-for-More, as we also expand our 5G network over the country. This continues, this basically is what drives the results of the mobile business.
Obviously, that's not an eternal game, but it's, it, it, it has room to go as the rollout of the 5G network offers a new opportunity to increase the data usage, as you will have seen. Which, by the way, in Q2 reached a record high for Q2, at 10 GB per customer per month, which is what actually we are leveraging on in order to, to gain a little bit of output. If I got correctly, the last question was about the FTTH coupon, which as we said, it's something that it's being under consultation. It's something that is the benefit of the society and the digitalization of the country.
We expect this to be enacted on time in order to be in place towards the end of the year or maybe beginning of 2024. That will be for Fiber To The Home , to the customer. A coupon that will be subsidizing the price of Fiber To The Home for the final customer.
If I could follow up with a clarification on the CapEx phasing. You mentioned that 2024 should be the peak. Should we expect a similar number in 2024, or do you see a risk because of inflationary pressures, that maybe it needs to be a bit higher than 2023?
No, we don't, we don't foresee a higher CapEx in 2024 versus 2023. It's, when the time comes, it, it, because CapEx is not only for Fiber To The Home , it has, it has other elements, as 5G and, TV CapEx. All of these, we need some more time to see how they will be baked in 2024. But overall, we don’t foresee an increase versus the previous discussion we had that 2024 would not be higher than 2023. The, the, the exact, the exact case will be fine-tuned as we know the, the specific elements of the CapEx during the year.
Thank you. That's all.
Thank you.
We have a follow-up question from the line of Memisoglu Osman with Ambrosia Capital. Please go ahead.
Yes, thank you. Just following up on Romania, shall we assume this around EUR 5 million EBITDA to be now the steady state? If you could elaborate on the EBITDA outlook, in general, and keep performance there, that would be helpful. Maybe some color on the latest competitive dynamics. I mean, it started aggressively here, but curious to hear what you're seeing on the ground lately, if there are any changes to either side. Thanks.
Thank you for the question, Osman. On the, on the competitive front, I think, Romanian market has been always been very competitive, sometimes, crossing maybe the, the line of irrational, but...
Sorry.
Okay. Let me start with the Romania question first, which is for the EBITDA, and then we talk about the competitive environment in Greece. In Romania, our EBITDA in Q2 was better than Q1 a little bit, denoting two things. One is the continuous effort to stabilize and increase actually the customer base in contract, which as it is evident in our numbers, it's increasing. Despite the heavy promotions and heavy subsidization from the from the overall market. Also the continuous transformation of the cost side after what we have experienced following the breakup of the two companies, the old fixed and the mobile.
So this is our aspiration that in the next couple of quarters, we will see not only this EUR 5 million, but maybe more, quarter by quarter, which will be the signature of what we are doing in the market is in the company, is producing some early sign results of stabilization. On the competitive environment in Greece, it's the same. I mean, it continues to be very challenging with a lot of commercial offerings that are spreading around in mobile and fixed. Our approach there, it has not changed
We approach the mobile part by offering to our customers a greater value through our network and the coverage we have and the speeding our network, which are we showing the numbers, it's appreciated since not only we increased it with our customer base, especially the postpaid one, but also the mobile revenues. On the fixed line, we're, we're fixed the [last] TV segment where competitive pressure is even more attuned with more aggressive offerings. We are holding up our customer base. We are increasing the broadband base. Obviously, on the revenue side, because of the ARPU dilution in an effort to hold up the customer base, we are comparing ourselves with Q1 and Q2 of 2022, when the coupon, the Fiber To The Home coupon subsidy that we talked before was in place, therefore, it was a much more favorable condition at that time.
As we said, as we move, as we move forward, we will expect to see that more, more positive comparables with in fixed because we would start comparing ourselves with quarters where some of these competitive pressures were evident.
Perfect. Thank you, Babis.
Thank you.
The next question is from our webcast participant, Raciborski Piotr. He has three questions, and I quote: "Why have other operating costs increased so considerably year-over-year in second quarter 2023? What were the main drivers?" This is the first question. The second question is: "Why has adjusted EBITDA in Greece was flat year-on-year in second quarter 2023, despite year-on-year increase in sales and all the cost optimization incentives? Why has adjusted EBITDA in Romania improved versus first quarter 2023?" The third question by Mr. Raciborski : "Do you expect telecom services prices to decrease again in 2023? Thank you.
Thank you for the question. Starting the, with the first one about the operating costs, I guess this is for, for Greece. I think the, the main part there is the direct cost for the ICT programs, which, as we said, it was the main driver of the year of this quarter. The equivalent cost is booked in the other operating expenses. That's the biggest part of it. That explains this difference. The second question: Why has adjusted EBITDA increase flat in Q2? It was not flat, it was a 1% increase. Again, the composition of the sales, where we had basically our better performance in mobile, covered f-fully the drop in the fixed. That was the good news.
The remaining increase in sales, which was the ICT, the handsets, and the international traffic, they are lower, lower margin. The optimization initiatives are evident in the cost lines, and they are helping delivering not only the growth we see in Q2, because of the seasonality between the two quarters, but also on the six months. The EBITDA in in in this in this quarter in Q2 versus Q1, again, I think we described before, it's a combination quarter by quarter of the improvement on the output revenues, on the service revenues, following the stabilization and the little bit decrease of the post-paid business, and also the continuous driving of transformation.
The third question was: Do you expect telecom services price to decrease again in 2023? I think this question might be related to Romania or to Greece. If it is to Greece, the this has to do with the competitive environment, so it's not a decrease in prices, but it's a kind of overall offerings in the market, which continued in 2023, and we expect to be, to prevail also for the second half. And if it, the question was for Romania, for the telecom prices, they are also the, the offerings are continuously reflecting the pressure in the ARPU. So there's no further decrease, but it's just continuation of the same competitive environment.
Thank you.
yep.
The next question is from the line of Dusan Petsas with Webbs. How many are the active Payzy users, and what is their average spending? What are the next plans for Payzy this year? Thank you.
The current Payzy users are in the area of 135,000 active users, which is reflecting the take-up of the service, month by month. Now, regarding the plans, obviously, we are working on new features to be launched, and please bear with us in the coming quarters. You will see some more use for the new services that will be launched.
Thank you. Last question from our webcast participants, from Anne Morris with Telco Titans. Are you still exploring strategic options for Telekom Romania Mobile Communications? Do you intend to retain this business long term? Thank you.
On this point, I will be consistent with our messages also from the last quarter. We are doing two things in Romania. The main thing is to stabilize the business, because even if we want to to pursue strategic activities, we need to have a a performing asset, which is what we're trying to do, while at the same time we are open and we are exploring indeed any strategic option that that comes by. This doesn't mean that we put on hold the the competitive activities in our company in order to to win in the market.
Thank you. As a final reminder, to register for a question, please press star and one on your telephone. Ladies and gentlemen, there are no further questions at this time. I will now turn the conference over to management for any closing comments. Thank you.
Thank you all for your attention, questions and interest to the day. We're pleased with our performances in the second quarter and first half. We're confident in our prospects for the rest of the year. We will work hard to deliver our commitments. On this note, I wish you a nice summer and look forward to our third quarter conference call at the beginning of November. Thank you, everyone, again, and have a nice day.
Ladies and gentlemen, the conference is now concluded, and you may disconnect your telephone. Excuse me. Thank you for calling, and have a good evening.