French telecom group Iliad reported revenue of EUR 1.2 billion in the third quarter, up by 6.5 percent year-on-year. Growth was supported by healthy mobile customer growth, with 305,000 net additions in the three months to September (+180,000 in Q2). Quarterly mobile revenue increased by 12.5 percent to EUR 521 million, while fixed revenue rose by 2.2 percent to EUR 665 million.
The mobile customer base reached 12.4 million, of which 5.3 million were LTE subscriptions (43% of the total). Average data consumption remained on an upward trend, increasing to 4.4 GB among LTE subscribers in September (compared with 3.9 GB in June). While mobile ARPU was not reported, the operator stated that it is experiencing solid growth on its higher-tier mobile offering, with ongoing migration from its entry-level tariff.
Fixed broadband connections increased by 66,000 in the quarter to reach 6.3 million. Fixed ARPU decreased to EUR 33.50 (EUR 33.90 in Q2), due to the effect of promotional offers and the seasonal impact on TV consumption.
The operator said that network expansion continued to progress, with FTTH services available to 4.0 million premises in September, compared to 3.1 million in June. Looking at the ongoing mobile deployment, Free covered 85 percent of the population with 3G and 73 percent with LTE services.
