Orange UK revenue grew 2.3 percent this Q1 to €1.82 billion, though, following confirmation of its merger with T-Mobile UK, parent France Telecom (NYSE: FTE) is now disregarding it in its business reporting.
Too bad. The parent saw less income in every region except Rest Of World, as it reported 5.5 percent lower EBITDA of €3.76 billion on 2.7 percent smaller income of €10.9 billion.
The group says European regulatory measures forcing telcos to reduce call termination fees wiped €270 million of its quarterly income, and will hit it by “about €1 billion” over the whole year.
Data revenue in its native France jumped 24.1 percent from the previous year, nearly a third of network income. And Orange TV customers there jumped 34 percent to 2.9 million – France is a world leader for IPTV take-up, and Orange is ahead of the pack in France. Orange TV clocked up 2.7 million pay-per-view buys during the quarter – that’s 53 percent up from Q1 2009.
It’s now committing 12 percent of its income to capital expenditure, notably fitting out France with a fibre optic network.