By Stuart Thomson

French and international service provider Iliad Group has recorded strong second-quarter growth in its French and international markets, with notable growth in Italy.

Despite what it described as an “extremely competitive context” in Italy, Iliad added 68,000 customers to its recently-launched fixed offering, as well as 257,000 mobile customers.

In its core domestic French market, Iliad, which operates as Free in the French market, added 67,000 new fixed and 120,000 mobile customers.

In Iliad’s third market, Poland, where it recently acquired Liberty Global-owned cable operator UPC Polska and is focused on integrating that with its existing Play mobile operation, the group added 41,000 fixed customers and 82,000 mobile customers.

Overall, the group had 13.858 billion mobile customers as of June 30, including its extensive base in France’s overseas territories.

EBITDA after leases amounted to €1.58 billion(US$1.584billion), up 10.1 per cent on a like-for-like basis, boosted in particular by Italy, where its earnings grew by €82 million.

Revenues were up 7.1 per cent in France, 16.8 per cent in Italy and 1.8 per cent in Poland. Overall revenue growth for the first half was 8.1 per cent, taking its total to €4.024 billion.

“The Iliad Group can announce this morning, with pride and humility, very good results in the three countries where we operate. Pride because we have developed a growth model that is unique among pan-European telecom operators. Humility because these very good results are the outcome of years of investment in our networks and policy of innovation. We have all the assets, notably strategic and financial, despite the current international hazards, to continue to grow,” said CEO, Thomas Reynaud.