Iliad’s Free Mobile added 820,000 customers in the first half of 2015 and increased its share of the French mobile market to 16%, a performance that was reflected in its bottom line.
The firm posted a 16.4% increase in profit on the same period in 2014 to €162.9 million, while consolidated EBITDA grew by 16.2% to €725 million.
Turnover was up by 6.9% to €2.16 billion, driven by the mobile business, which turned in revenues of €880.4 million, up 18.1% on last year. On the fixed-line side revenues were virtually flat at €1.29 billion.
"Thanks to its outstanding sales performance during the period, at 30 June 2015 the group had a total of almost 11 million mobile subscribers and a market share of 16%, which means that it had already exceeded its initial long-term market share target for the mobile business just over three years after its first offerings were launched," Iliad said in a statement.
It brought Free Mobile to market in France at the start of 2012, triggering a period of intense competition, the effects of which are still being felt by rival operators.
Free Mobile’s 10.93 million mobile customers at mid-year included 2.4 million 4G users.
Iliad was also keen to highlight its fixed-line business. It added 123,000 fixed broadband customers in the first six months of the year, which it estimates gives it a 36% share of net adds for the period.
The telco had 5.99 million fixed broadband customers at the end of June. Its overall customer base came in at 16.92 million.
