Tiscali reports loss, revenues down

Italian ISP Tiscali narrowed its first-quarter losses by 54% year-on-year, posting a loss of €17.2m as of March 31.

The company, which recently agreed to sell it UK business to mobile phone retailer and ISP Carphone Warehouse for £255.5m (€285.5m), posted consolidated revenues of €202.6m, down from €268.9m a year earlier. It blamed a lower client base in the UK and unfavourable exchange rate for the decrease. EBITDA was down to €41m from €47.7m.

At the end of March, Tiscali had a total of 2.2 million ADSL users. In the UK, it had 1.7 million broadband customers, of which 806,000 subscribed to double-play services. Revenue for the UK reached €131.3m, a decrease of 17% year-on-year. ARPU for access and voice services declined slightly to £22 per month, which the company put down to competitive pressure and the negative impact of the exchange rate. In Italy, there were 554,000 ADSL subscribers, 262,000 taking dual-play services. Revenue remained flat at €75m. ARPU was up €2 to €31.