Numericable-SFR claims to have added customers last month as a result of ‘back to school’ promotions, although it still saw its subscriber base contract in the third quarter, albeit by a small amount.
The French operator on Wednesday said it effectively managed to stabilise its fixed and mobile customer bases in Q3.
It ended the three months to 30 September with 21.8 million mobile customers, down marginally from 21.9 million at the end of Q2 and 6.4 million fixed customers, flat compared with the previous quarter, 1.7 million of whom were connected to fibre.
"The marketing strategy aimed at generating ARPU growth and value through a clear focus on high end customers and quadruple play is clearly bearing fruit in both fixed and mobile," the telco said, in its results statement.
Blended mobile ARPU grew by 2.2% sequentially to €23.2, while average fixed revenues per user rose by 1.3% to €35.8. The telco said that ARPU from its gross adds was higher than the company average in both fixed and mobile.
Numericable-SFR also said it stabilised overall revenue on a sequential basis.
Its top line for the period came in at €2.77 billion, down 0.3% on Q2, but still 3.5% down on the year-ago quarter.
Adjusted EBITDA grew 15% to €1.03 billion, which the telco attributed to the progress of its synergies implementation plan.
Its adjusted EBITDA margin increased by 6.1 percentage points to 37.3%, despite the additional marketing spend from the ‘back to school’ campaign, Numericable-SFR said.
"We remain confident in achieving our medium term target of 45% adjusted EBITDA margin," it said.
