Free claims success for Révolution

Some 80% of French ISP Free’s new subscribers in the first half of 2011 took up its Freebox Révolution high-end combined gateway and media centre option, the company has said. Free said that its market share of broadband net additions in the first half was 36%.

Free had 4.717 million broadband subscribers at the end of June, up from 4.514 million a year earlier. Free said it expected to have 100,000 FTTH subscribers by the end of this year and that it will cover four million homes with its fibre network by the end of next year.

Revenues were €1.042 billion, up 2.6%, while EBITDA was €416.4 million, up 6.3%. Profit for the period was €145 million, down 15.4%, thanks in part to increased capital expenditure. The company said it planned to have free cash flow from ADSL operations in excess of €1.1 billion between 2010 and 2012 and to double its revenues by 2015.