France Telecom revenues struggling

France Telecom on Thursday reported that revenues for the third quarter were up just 1.2 per cent year on year on a comparable basis to Eur13bn (£8.7bn) and largely boosted by the acquisition of Spanish mobile operator Amena.

Revenues at the Personal Communications [mobile] division accounted for the lion’s share of sales, rising 5 per cent year on year to Eur7.14bn, barely making up for the shortfall in Home Communication Services [broadband] sales, which fell 1.8 per cent to Eur5.6bn.

Orange’s mobile operations in Poland made a significant contribution, with revenues increasing 20 per cent year on year but Western European operations had a more gloomy performance with UK revenues dropping 1.6 per cent and revenues in France rising just 1.2 per cent.

Gervais Pellissier, chief financial officer of France Telecom, said: “These results reflect the solid balance between growth and profitability in the mature and highly competitive markets of Western Europe and continued profitable growth in high-potential countries.

“In the French market, we are witnessing an increase in the number of mobile customers (excluding MVNO), particularly in mobile Broadband, whilst our new ADSL offers have proven successful. Today, 53 per cent of our ADSL customers are Livebox equipped,” he said.