News
French telco claims 18% share of mobile market on surging 4G data use.
Iliad reported healthy financials for the first quarter of 2017, thanks to strong revenue growth at both its mobile and landline businesses.
The French telco reported consolidated revenue of €1.22 billion for the three months to the end of March, up from €1.15 billion in the corresponding quarter of 2016.
Iliad’s Free Mobile arm saw revenues jump 9.3% year-on-year to €528.6 million, thanks to healthy customers additions and 4G uptake. Free added 240,000 new customers during the quarter, bringing the total up to 12.9 million, taking its market share to more than 18%.
Its 4G customer base increased by 400,000 to 6.3 million, up from 4.3 million in Q1 2016. Average monthly 4G data consumption grew to 6.0 GB from 3.8 GB a year earlier.
Free Mobile also ramped up its 4G network roll out during the quarter, adding 1,500 new sites to its 1800-MHz footprint, and 100 new 700-MHz sites.
"This intense deployment has enabled the group to increase its 4G coverage rate of the French population by four percentage points to over 80%," Iliad said, in a statement.
The performance at Iliad’s fixed-line unit were similarly encouraging.
Revenue grew to €697.8 million from €664.6 million a year ago, while its customer base grew to 6.45 million from 6.22 million. At the end of March, its fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) subscriber base stood at 369,000.
Much like its accelerated 4G rollout, Iliad has also been busy extending the reach of its fibre network passing an additional 400,000 premises during the first quarter.
