Iliad generated group revenues of EUR 1.38 billion in the three months to March, up 6.9 percent year-on-year (+11.0% in Q4). The quarter was impacted by a sharp decline in equipment sales, down 38.6 percent to EUR 45 million, partly reflecting an unfavourable comparison effect with Q1 2019, when the commercialisation of the premium Freebox Delta STB gained momentum in France. Group service revenues rose 9.6 percent to reach EUR 1.34 billion, helped by ongoing mobile ARPU growth in France and customer gains in Italy.
The financial guidance for both France and Italy has remained unchanged. The company said that the impact of the Covid-19 crisis is currently limited, while noting that some negative effects were possible, namely on the pace of fixed and mobile network deployment.
In Iliad’s core French market, growth in service revenues slowed down marginally to 4.2 percent (+4.8% in Q4 organically). In the mobile segment, service revenues increased 8.1 percent to EUR 527 million (+9.3% in Q4). The recovery of the fixed business proved resilient, with a growth rate of 1.3 percent bringing service revenues to EUR 663 million (+1.6% in Q4 organically).
Jaguar Network, acquired in Q1 2019, contributed to Iliad's fixed operations with revenues of EUR 11 million, up from EUR 10 million in the year-earlier period.
Among French subscribers, mobile ARPU rose 10.7 percent year-on-year to reach EUR 10.60 (+14.0% in Q4), while remaining stable quarter-on-quarter. Fixed ARPU stood at EUR 32.00, down from EUR 32.60 in the previous three months and EUR 32.50 in the year-earlier period.
Free Mobile's customer base recorded positive net additions for a second consecutive quarter, increasing by 13,000 since December (+17,000 in Q4). Subscriptions to the higher-tier plan grew by 100,000 over the three-month period (+102,000 in Q4) to stand at 8.28 million, or 62 percent of mobile subscribers. Despite the disruption caused by the Covid-19 lockdown, LTE population coverage progressed to 96.8 percent, from 95.7 percent at end-December.
In the fixed broadband segment, Free saw its quarterly net additions improve to 47,000 (+32,000 in Q4), closing March with 6.51 million ADSL/fibre lines. The operator said that it had achieved the best FTTH net additions among French rivals for the fourth consecutive quarter (+215,000 from +245,000 in Q4). This led to a FTTH subscriber base of 1.98 million, representing over 30 percent of Free's fixed broadband connections.
