Bouygues Telecom added 645,000 customers during the first half of 2017, taking its mobile base to 13.6 million – a feat the company said places it as the country’s leading operator for subscriber additions since the start of 2016.

In its investor statement for the six months to end-June, Bouygues said it had now reached the milestone of 10 million contract customers for the first time after adding 240,000 post paid users during the period.

According to GSMA Intelligence estimates for Q1 2017, Bouygues was the fourth largest operator by connections in the French market behind Orange, SFR and Free Mobile.

Its recent growth in subscribers would put it extremely close to Free Mobile’s total user numbers, though still around 5 million behind SFR and 10 million behind Orange.

During H1 2017, Bouygues Telecom – which also includes the company’s fixed business – generated a net profit of €122 million compared to a loss of €12 million in the same period of 2016. Revenue increased 6 per cent year-on-year to €2.4 billion.