Free and Bouygues rise as SFR falls

French multi-play service providers Iliad Telecom/Free and Bouygues Telecom have both turned in solid numbers for the first nine months of the year, further throwing into relief the problems being experienced by rival Altice France/SFR.

Iliad Telecom posted an increase in revenues of 6.6% to €3.71 billion for the quarter, boosted by the addition of 250,000 new mobile subscribers. Some 7.4 million mobile subscribers now take the operator’s 4G service, amounting to half the total mobile base.

Bouygues Telecom

In the fixed-line business, Free added 64,000 new fibre subscribers, taking its total to 483,000 out of a total of 6.495 million fixed broadband customers.

Bouygues Telecom meanwhile posted a 6% increase in revenues for the first nine months to €3.727 billion, while its net profit increased fourfold to €229 million. Bouygues gained 940,000 mobile customers in the period, taking its total to 13.9 million, of which 7.7 million are 4G customers. In the fixed-line business, the company added 243,000 new subscribers, taking its total to 3.344 million.