Iliad’s momentum continued in Q1 with a solid increase in revenue, however the company admitted the quarter was marred by the Covid-19 (coronavirus) crisis which affected sales, subscriber growth and planned infrastructure rollouts.

In a statement, Iliad said its performance was hit by three weeks of lockdown in Italy and two weeks in home market France, with the number of new subscribers slowing during those times.

The company also conceded the pace of network rollouts were “less robust” in Q1, due to a delay in processing administrative formalities including building permits and roadworks. This impact will weigh on deployments in the current quarter, it added.

Going forward, the company set itself three short-term objectives: keeping employees safe as lockdowns ease; relaunching sales activities; and a return to a brisk pace of rollouts.

Q1 results
Revenue increased 6.9 per cent year-on-year to €1.4 billion, with services growing 9.6 per cent and offsetting a 38.6 per cent decline in device sales.

French revenue grew 1.7 per cent to €1.2 billion, mainly due to increased fibre take-up, while its mobile business also contributed with an 8.1 per cent rise to €527 million.

Iliad said mobile growth was driven by 100,000 4G subscriber additions, a sharp increase in revenue invoiced to subscribers as it reduced availability of low-price tariffs, and increased voice traffic as a result of France’s lockdown measures.

The company registered 13.3 million mobile subscribers in France at end-March.

In Italy, revenue surged 86 per cent to €150 million, which it noted was achieved despite the tough conditions experienced in the country’s mobile market. The numbers were boosted by 525,000 mobile subscriber additions, giving it 5.8 million in total, an increase of 2.5 million year-on-year.

The operator doesn’t reveal profit figures on a quarterly basis.