Free grows ADSL subscriber base

French service provider Iliad Telecom grew its ADSL subscriber base by 49,000 in the third quarter. Iliad recruited 100,000 new broadband subscribers under the Free brand in the quarter, taking its total to 3.69 million and giving it a market share of about 28.4% of new subscribers. However, subscribers to Iliad’s Alice brand numbered 731,000 at the end of September, down from 782,000 in June.

Iliad’s quarterly consolidated revenues grew by 33% to €1.457bn, due to organic growth in Free subscribers, the consolidation of Alice and growth in revenue from added-value services (a figure that includes premium TV services), which amounted to €348m at the end of September, up 36%. Broadband ARPU stood at €36.10 for the period.

Iliad confirmed its targets of five million broadband subscribers by 2011 and ADSL free cash-flow of over €1bn in 2009-11. Iliad has also confirmed that it intends to cover 70% of Paris with its fibre-to-the-home network by the end of the year, and pass four million homes by the end of 2012.