Original URL: https://www.theregister.com/2004/04/29/wanadoo_freeserve_broadband/

Wanadoo UK racks up 192k broadband punters

Whatever

By Tim Richardson

Posted in Networks, 29th April 2004 09:26 GMT

Wanadoo UK (formerly Le Freeswerve) added 34,000 new ADSL punters in the first three months of the year, increasing the total number of broadband customers to 192,000.

This growth means that broadband customers account for 7.4 per cent of its total subscriber base at the end of March, up from 6.1 per cent at the end of December. The figures have yet to reflect demand for Wanadoo UK's new £17.99 a month broadband offer unveiled this week.

However, Wanadoo UK's split between narrowband and broadband punters is way off the pace compared to the whole of the Wanadoo group.

For Wanadoo - a subsidiary of France Telecom and a key player in Europe's ISP sector with more than 9.3m Net access users - had 2.87m broadband subscribers in Europe at the end of March, accounting for 31 per cent of its entire customer base.

This continued growth in broadband numbers helped Wanadoo increase revenues 15 per cent year on year for the first quarter (Q1) as income rose from €567m £380m) to €636m (£426m).

Olivier Sichel, chairman and CEO of Wanadoo, said the performance was in line with targets to gain a million broadband customers in 2004. "Dynamic growth is expected to continue in the coming months in France and in all our European markets, energised by a host of fresh initiatives, including unbundling of the local loop in Spain and the adoption of the Wanadoo brand in the U.K."

Yesterday, France Telecom confirmed that it had bought back enough Wanadoo shares to re-integrate its Wanadoo ISP operation into the FT business. It wants to acquire the outstanding shares in its ISP division in a bid to cash-in fully on future revenues from the growth in broadband. ®

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