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French low-cost provider claims mobile market share of 18.3% after adding 305,000 customers.
Iliad on Wednesday reported a 6.5% increase in third quarter revenue, after its Free Mobile business put in another strong performance.
Free Mobile added 305,000 customers in the three months to 30 September, leaving it with 12.39 million overall, enough for an 18.3% share of the French market. Of that total, some 5.3 million are 4G customers. 12 months ago, Free Mobile had 11.32 million customers and a market share of just above 16%.
"By standing out from the competition for the depth and breadth of its offerings and unchanged prices, Free was France’s leading recruiter of mobile subscribers for the 19th quarter in a row," Iliad said, in a statement.
Iliad attributed the performance to the popularity of Free Mobile’s €19.99 per month plan, which offers 50 GB of data and free roaming across the EU, as well as the U.S., Australia, Canada, Iceland, Norway and Israel.
The strong showing resulted in mobile revenues jumping 12.5% year-on-year to €521 million.
Meanwhile, Iliad’s fixed business ended September with 6.33 million broadband customers, up from 6.08 million a year earlier. Net additions for the quarter came in at 66,000. Fixed-line revenue increased to €665 million from €651 million.
Despite an extremely competitive operating environment during the third quarter of 2016, with numerous promotional offers launched by competitors, the group kept up the excellent momentum in its landline business and accelerated the pace of growth," Iliad said.
At group level, revenue for the quarter increased to €1.18 billion from €1.11 billion a year ago.
