Everything is going well for Free at the start of 2024, with an impressive gain of new subscribers! The magic recipe: investments in its infrastructure, attractive subscriptions and, above all, no increase!
This is a very complicated time for our operators! While they have had to face the energy crisis and then inflation, they are having difficulty retaining their customers, unhappy with successive increases in the prices of their subscriptions. Well, all except one! Because an irreducible operator still resists price increases! While SFR lost nearly 500,000 subscribers in three months on mobile, Free recorded a most encouraging increase!
HAS like the year 2023, “the results for the 1st quarter of 2024 are solid and confirm our European leadership both in terms of revenue growth and recruitment of new mobile and fixed subscribers”welcomes the Iliad group during the publication of its quarterly results. In one year, the operator managed to capture the hearts of 698,000 new subscribers in France, Italy and Poland, bringing the total number of customers to 49.21 million. The opportunity to reaffirm its ambition to reach a turnover of 10 billion euros and become the 5th European mobile operator in 2024.
Growth of Free: the operator is stocking up on new subscribers
In total, Iliad recruited 297,000 new subscribers in France in the first three months of the year, including 212,000 on mobile and 85,000 on landlines. Likewise, 232,000 customers have subscribed to fiber with the operator. Impressive growth supported, according to the operator, by the success of the launch of the Freebox Ultra at the end of January. In comparison, Bouygues Telecom and Orange respectively recruited 27,000 and 9,000 mobile subscribers, while SFR lost 487,000. Orange and SFR also lost 43,000 and 77,000 subscribers in the fixed line segment, while Bouygues Telecom gained 38,000.
In Italy, Free maintains its position as leader in mobile recruitment for the 24th consecutive quarter with 276,000 new subscribers and 38,000 new landline customers. This brings the total number of new subscribers to 314,000. In Poland, its operator Play gained 73,000 new subscribers, taking first place in the sector in terms of recruitment. In the fixed segment, recruitment reached 14,000 customers.
Growth of Free: attractive prices that make the difference
Bottom line: Free’s turnover increased by 11.2% between the first quarters of 2023 and 2024, reaching 2.45 billion euros. He is “driven by the three geographies: France recorded the strongest growth in its quarterly turnover for almost 10 years (+10.0%), Poland accelerated to +13.8% (+10.2% in previous quarter) with improving organic growth (+5.0% compared to +3.0% in the 4th quarter of 2023) and a favorable exchange rate effect, and Italy remains in strong growth at +12.8%”, welcomes Iliad.
Free’s growth is due to several factors. Firstly, the operator is, with Orange, the one which offers the best customer satisfaction rate, on both mobile and landline, according to the 2024 edition of the Arcep customer satisfaction observatory (see our article). To do this, it strives to continually improve its networks. Between March 2023 and March 2024, Iliad invested 1.88 billion euros in its infrastructure and equipment.
Then, it is the only one to maintain its prices until 2027, while all its competitors continue to increase them. Coupled with attractive offers, such as its 300 GB package with the Oqee TV application at €19.99 per month, this really makes the difference. Not to mention that its customers are entitled to little touches. Thus, since last February, TV by Canal has been included in the Freebox Ultra Essential formula (see our article). Likewise, it now offers the new version of the Freebox Pop server to its old subscribers, and no longer just to new ones. Enough to build consumer loyalty!