Belgacom reported first-quarter underlying sales of EUR 1.479 billion, up 5.5 percent from a year earlier. Revenues from core activities increased 3.3 percent, and group EBITDA rose 3.8 percent year-on-year to EUR 423 million. Capital expenditure was up 26 percent to EUR 227 million, driven by the roll-out of LTE, which reached 94.9 percent outdoor population coverage and 77.2 percent indoors at the end of March. Belgacom said it had very strong operational results in the quarter, strengthening its market share to 45.4 percent in internet and 33.9 percent for digital TV. The Belgian operator maintained its outlook for 2015 results.
The Consumer Business Unit ended the quarter with 2.14 million fixed lines and 1.65 million broadband customers. TV subscribers increased by 65,000 compared to December to 1.657 million. Belgacom increased its triple-play penetration to 57 percent, and around half of those also take mobile services from the operator. ARPU was down by 10 cents to EUR 27.60 for broadband and increased by 70 cents to EUR 19.90 for TV.
Belgacom had 4.23 million active mobile lines at the end of March, of which 1.42 million prepaid and 2.82 million postpaid. ARPU totalled EUR 22, down slightly from EUR 22.10 in Q4 2014.
Business market
The enterprise unit posted turnover of EUR 392 million, up 2.2 percent. Fixed services accounted for EUR 238 million, mobile EUR 85 million. Business EBITDA reached EUR 148 million, good for a margin of 45.0 percent. Proximus counted 686,000 fixed business lines and 139,000 broadband customers in the neterprise market. Mobile lines reached 1.18 million, of which 301,000 for M2M. Postpaid ARPU totalled EUR 29.30, nearly the same as in the consumer market.
The wholesale international division BICS grew revenues by 11.9 percent to EUR 357 million and generated an operating profit of EUR 399 million. BICS handled 6.5 billion minutes and 656 million SMS/MMS in the quarter, an increase on an annual basis.
