French mobile and broadband operator Free attracted 1.59 million new mobile customers in the first half, taking the total to 6.8 million at the end of June and giving it an over 10 percent share of the French mobile market, according to parent company Iliad.
Group revenue rose by 26.7 percent year-on-year to EUR 1.83 billion in the first six months of 2013. Mobile accounted for EUR 600.8 million, up 88 percent on EUR 319.5 million in the first half of 2012. The split between mobile services and terminals was EUR 535.4 million and EUR 65.3 million, respectively.
Free’s landline revenue rose by 9.2 percent to EUR 1.23 billion from EUR 1.13 billion as the company added over 154,000 net fixed service customers, net of terminations and excluding migrations from Telecom Italia’s former subsidiary Alice, acquired by Iliad in the late 1990s. The group calculates its share of net landline adds in the first half at 41 percent.
Iliad boosted its EBITDA by 40.4 percent to EUR 585.8 million, compared to EUR 417.3 million a year earlier. Landline EBITDA was up 15.2 percent to EUR 531.6 million, and mobile stood at EUR 54.2 million, versus a EUR 44.3 million loss in the first six months of 2012. Group net profit surged 78 percent to EUR 142 million.
Iliad’s targets include over 5 percent revenue growth at the fixed activities over the full year, a 25 percent share of France’s landline broadband market in the long term, a 15 percent mobile market share in the medium term and 25 percent of the mobile market in the long term.
