French telco targets 75% LTE coverage by the end of 2016
French telecom operator Iliad, which operates in the mobile market through its Free subsidiary, ended 2015 with 3.7 million LTE subscribers, posting 2 million net customer additions for the year. Revenue from mobile services totaled 1.82 billion euros ($1.99 billion) in 2015, surging 13.3% year-on-year.
Free’s overall mobile subscriber base reached nearly 11.68 million customers, which represented 17% market share.
The Iliad Group said it strengthened its spectrum portfolio last year with an additional 15 megahertz of spectrum acquired in the 1800 MHz band and 10 megahertz in the 700 MHz band. Free initially launched commercial LTE services in 2013, and currently offers service using spectrum in the 1800 MHz and 2.6 GHz bands.
The operator said it plans to cover 75% of the French population with LTE services by the end of 2016, having hit 63% coverage at the end of 2015. To achieve its goal, Free announced plans to deploy 1,500 LTE base stations across the country this year.
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Cellnex-F2i to announce new offer for Teleom Italia’s Inwit stake
In other EMEA news, a consortium comprising Spanish operator Cellnex and Italian infrastructure fund F2i plan to launch a binding offer to buy 45% of Italian telecom tower operator Inwit on March 14, Spanish press reported.
Last month, Telecom Italia said it received three non-binding offers for the company’s 45% stake in Inwit. Telecom Italia currently controls 60% of Inwit after selling the other 40% in a listing last year. Other companies that expressed interest in the acquisition are American Towers and Ei Towers, according to previous reports.
If Cellnex/F2i offer is accepted by Telecom Italia, the consortium will be forced to launch a takeover bid for an additional 40% stake in Inwit, according to Italian regulations. Cellnex currently controls 15,000 towers in Spain and Italy.
Telecom Italia previously said it expects to complete a transaction by June 2016. In November 2015, Telecom Italia CEO Marco Patuano said the telco expects to keep a stake of between 15% and 20% in its tower unit. Inwit, which generated 314 million euros in revenue last year, owns 11,500 mobile towers, which represents approximately 27% of all Italian towers.