Orange said its momentum in Q2 “confirms the success of very high-speed broadband, both fixed and mobile, in Europe”, as Middle East and Africa also remains a growth area.

In Europe, “we have doubled both our fibre customer base to 2.5 million customers as well as our 4G customer base, with nearly 23 million customers”, Stephane Richard, group CEO, said.

For MEA, “we have continued our development with several acquisitions, effective in the  first half, representing 12 million customers, enabling us to enter Liberia, Burkina Faso and Sierra Leone, and to consolidate our business in the Democratic Republic of Congo”, he continued.

In terms of revenue performance, Q2 revenue was stable, after rising 0.6 per cent in the first three months of the year.

While the company called out Spain in particular for its strong performance (up 6.2 per cent on a comparable basis), driven by mobile growth, there was weakness in Orange’s home market (down 1.7 per cent) – a drop in national roaming revenue was noted, as well as European roaming price reductions and SIM-only growth.

For Q2, the company cited operating income of €1.33 billion, down 0.8 per cent year-on-year, on revenue of €10.07 billion, up 1.9 per cent.

It ended the period with 188.6 million mobile customers, a year-on-year increase of 1.3 per cent (2.5 million net additions). Africa and Middle East accounted for 108.5 million of these, impacted by strengthened requirements to verify the identity of customers in certain countries.

The company reported an H1 net income of €3.17 billion, up from €1.1 billion in the comparable period, on revenue of €20.08 billion, up 2.7 per cent. This year, the bottom line was bolstered by a gain of around €1.8 billion related to the EE sale.

Operating income of €2.14 billion was down 5.4 per cent. The company noted increased amortisation and depreciation charges linked to the acquisition of Jazztel (Spain) and full consolidation of Medi Telecom (Morocco), and an impairment charge related to Egypt.