Despite the failure of consolidation and the presence of cut-throat competition, rivals Bouygues Telecom and Iliad managed encouraging financial results.

Bouygues Telecom – subject to a failed takeover attempt earlier this year by Orange – reported a six per cent increase in first half 2016 revenue to €2.3 billion, thanks to the addition of 303,000 customers in the second quarter and 543,000 in the first six months of the year.

Meanwhile, smaller rival Iliad reported an 11 per cent increase in first half mobile revenue to €973 million, including a 14 per cent rise in service revenue. This growth was built on 400,000 net additions in the first half of 2016, equivalent to 17 per cent market share (12.1 million subscribers). The operator’s long term goal is 25 per cent share of the country’s mobile market.

Total revenue (including landline) at Iliad was up 6.3 per cent to €2.3 billion.

4G growth
Both operators boasted about growing 4G user numbers and traffic. Bouygues had 6 million 4G users at end-June (excluding M2M), representing 58 per cent of its total base (compared to 42 per cent in the year ago period). 4G users’ average monthly data consumption was 3.2 GB in Q2 2016 (up from 2.4 GB in the year ago period).

Iliad’s 4G customer base has doubled in one year (to 4.7 million) and the group boasts about having the sector’s highest average monthly data usage at 3.9 GB, a 77 per cent year-on-year increase.

The group claims its attraction is based on innovative services, including the number of roaming destinations included in its Free Mobile Plan. The group is the only one of the country’s four operators to offer 50 GB of mobile internet in a plan costing less than €20 per month.

It admits this approach may weigh on short and medium term profitability, although the trade off is strong sales momentum.

However, profit for the period climbed 17 per cent to €190 million from €163 million in the first half of 2015.

Bouygues Telecom reported an improved Ebitda in H1 of €408 million, compared to €323 million in the year ago period. However, the mobile business made a net loss of €12 million, although this narrowed from a €66 million loss a year earlier.  Profitability was weighed by a non-current charge in H1 2016 of €43 million related to the rollout of network sharing with SFR (the year ago network-sharing charge was €55 million).