Orange reaches 8.7 million 4G subs in its home market
French mobile operator Orange said it reached 8.7 million LTE subscribers in its domestic market at the end of the first quarter of 2016, up 95% year-over-year. The carrier’s overall mobile connection base in France totaled 28.42 million at the end of Q1, compared to 28.6 million at the end of Q1 2015.
Orange said its LTE network reached 81% of the French population by the end of the period, using spectrum in the 800 MHz and 2.6 GHz bands. The telco said it has deployed 8,716 LTE sites across the country, including 3,446 sites upgraded with LTE-Advanced technology.
Across its operations in Spain, Orange ended Q1 with 5.4 million LTE customers with its LTE reaching 87% of the country’s population. The company also offers LTE services in Poland, Belgium, Romania, Slovakia, Moldava, Botswana, Jordan, Morocco, Mauritius, Cameroon, Guinea-Bissau and Côte d’Ivoire.
“For the third consecutive quarter, Orange revenues have grown, again validating our strategy of differentiation through quality and investment,” explained Orange Group Chairman and CEO Stéphane Richard. “This is due to the strong commercial performance in all group countries, particularly France, Spain, Belgium, Romania and the Africa and Middle East region as well as in the enterprise market. … In Europe, we doubled the number of our 4G customers in just one year, reaching 20 million. We also reaffirmed our status as the leading fiber operator in Europe where we more than doubled the number of fiber customers to in excess of 2.2 million, principally driven by France and Spain.”
In Africa and the Middle East, Orange counted 111.8 million mobile customers at the end of the first quarter, up 2.8% year-on-year. The French telco said the main contributors to growth in the region were Côte d’Ivoire, Guinea and Cameroon.
The group posted quarterly revenues 10 billion euros ($11.32 billion), up 0.6% versus the same period in 2015. In France, Orange’s revenues totaled 4.7 billion euros in the quarter. Total Q1 capital expenses amounted to 1.45 billion euros, which accounted for 14.6% of revenues.
Orange also said the group is pursuing a policy of selective acquisitions by concentrating on markets in which it is already present.
