Iliad Loses 70,000 Subscribers In France But Italian Venture Fuels Optimism

Revenues and profitability at the French firm remained stable, despite loss of subscribers.

French based telco, Iliad, has posted a mixed financial report for the first half of 2018.

Iliad’s mobile subsidiary, Free, lost 70,000 subscribers in H1 2018, despite its focus on providing low cost mobile access in France. The company blamed the loss on a sharp downturn in take up of its €2 per month tariff. Free enjoys a 17 per cent share of France’s mobile market with 13.6 million subscribers.

Despite the loss of subscribers in its mobile business unit, revenues at Iliad remained stable at €2.4 billion, with profitability in its French division actually rising.

On the fixed line side of the business, Iliad cemented its place as a key provider of fibre to the home (FTTH) services in France, passing 1.7 million properties and adding 178,000 new FTTH customers in H1 2018.

Iliad saw strong performance in its fledgling Italian business unit, which launched earlier this year. Iliad Italy had signed up 1.5 million subscribers by the end of August 2018, with the company reporting that that figure has now surpassed 2 million.

Iliad Italy has incurred €164 million in capital expenditure in first-half 2018 in order to develop its Italian operations. This included the €73 million it paid to Wind/Tre for frequencies purchased from them. – Total Telecom