Telecom Italia reported first-half revenues of EUR 14.543 billion, up 10 percent from a year earlier thanks to growth in Brazil and the increase in its stake in Telecom Argentina. In its home market Italy, revenues fell 7.3 percent to EUR 9.356 billion. EBITDA rose 4.3 percent to EUR 5.977 billion, while the EBITDA margin fell 2.3 percent points to 41.1 percent. In organic terms, EBITDA was down 2.2 percent, as the result in Italy slid 7.6 percent to EUR 4.547 billion. The company had a net loss of EUR 2.013 billion, after writing down goodwill on its domestic operations by EUR 3.182 billion. Excluding the writedown, net profit was in line with a year earlier, at EUR 1.17 billion. Capex was stable at EUR 2.0 billion, operating free cash flow rose by EUR 360 million to EUR 2.512 billion, and net debt stood at EUR 31.2 billion, down by around EUR 2.5 billion from a year earlier. Telecom Italia reiterated its outlook for 2011 for stable organic revenues and EBITDA, capex at EUR 4.8 billion and net debt at EUR 29.5 billion.
In Italy, the company's fixed-line revenues were down 5.2 percent to EUR 6.69 billion. The number of retail voice lines fell 2.5 percent from the start of the year and 4.9 percent from June 2010 to 14.96 million, with a net line loss of 183,000 in Q2. Broadband customers rose by 59,000 from the start of the year to 9.1 million, of which around 1.95 million were wholesale. IPTV subscribers totaled 328,000.
At mobile unit TIM, revenues for the first half fell 10.4 percent to EUR 3.496 billion. The company said the trend improved in Q2, with a revenue fall of 7.6 percent versus 12 percent in Q1. Organic service revenues fell 10.6 percent over the first half. The company had 31.26 million customers at the end of June, up from 31.04 million three months earlier. ARPU was down 12.6 percent from a year earlier to EUR 18, while usage improved 8.0 percent to an average 167 minutes per customer.
