Iliad's half-year core profit rises 2% on Italy strength. Thursday, 27 Aug 2026 | 2:32 PM MYT Aug 27 (Reuters) - French telecom operator Iliad posted a 2.2% rise in its half-year core profit on Thursday, buoyed by strong performance in Italy. The company's earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization and after leases, or EBITDAaL, was €2 billion ($2.3 billion) in the first half of 2026. Iliad reported consolidated revenue of €5.24 billion for the six-month period, up 3% from a year ago. Revenue in France rose 1.5% to €3.32 billion, Italy posted a 10.2% jump to €665 million and Poland grew 3.5% to €1.26 billion. The numbers underscore how Iliad has evolved from a French price disruptor into a broader European telecoms group, with Italy and Poland contributing an increasing share of growth as its domestic market approaches saturation. The group added 300,000 subscribers in the second quarter, resulting in a total customer base of 52.5 million at the end of June. That growth was driven by mobile customers, while fixed-line subscribers were broadly stable. France ended the quarter with 23.4 million subscribers, while Italy and Poland added about 100,000 customers each to reach 13.3 million and 15.8 million, respectively. ($1 = 0.8582 euros) (Reporting by Leo Marchandon in Gdansk, editing by Milla Nissi-Prussak) Is this article useful?

Iliad Group posts strong H1 2026 results with robust growth. August 27, 2026 09.05 Europe/London By Robert Briel The Iliad Group delivered a solid first half of 2026, maintaining its position as Europe's fastest-growing telecom operator. The company reported 3.4% organic growth in services revenue, driven by strong commercial momentum across France, Italy and Poland. A major development during the period was Iliad's agreement - alongside Orange and Bouygues Telecom - to acquire a portion of SFR's assets. Pending regulatory approval, the deal would make Iliad the third-largest telecom operator in the European Union, marking one of the most significant strategic steps in the company's history. Iliad continued to push innovation across its markets. In France, the company launched Free Max, the first unlimited mobile data plan covering France and 140 international destinations. In Italy, Iliad introduced Mondo, expanding its competitive footprint. The Group also strengthened its sovereign cloud position through Scaleway, which secured major contracts including the European "Trusted Cloud" agreement with Airbus and hosting responsibilities for France's Health Data Hub. Customer satisfaction reached record highs, with Iliad achieving the best Net Promoter Score for mobile and broadband in both France and Italy, while Play maintained strong NPS performance in Poland. Free's early rollout of 5G+ also paid off, earning the operator the top ranking in Europe for 5G+ quality. Financially, the Group is in its strongest position to date. Operating free cash flow rose 10%, and Iliad's leverage ratio fell to 2.2x EBITDAaL by the end of June. Moody's, Fitch and S&P all upgraded the company's credit ratings in recognition of its improved financial profile. Consolidated profit for the first half reached €502 million, including €365 million generated in the second quarter - more than double the Q2 2025 figure. Equity free cash flow climbed 32% to €661 million, putting Iliad on track to exceed €1 billion EFCF for the full year.

Eurobites: Ericsson, Telia plan Swedish test center for 5G, 6G and AI. Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: CityFibre extends backhaul deal with VodafoneThree; Eutelsat lands AST maritime gig; MasOrange chooses Polystar's analytics. Paul Rainford, Assistant Editor, Europe, Light Reading June 22, 2026 Ericsson and Telia are the lead partners in a project to create a new national 5G, 6G and AI test center in Sweden. Called Digital Arena Sweden, the planned center will feature, among other things, a pre-commercial 6G test environment in collaboration with Lund University and the KTH Royal Institute of Technology. The project, which builds on the existing NorthStar 5G testing collaboration between Ericsson and Telia, represents an investment of more than 300 million Swedish kronor (US$31.2 million), some of that coming from Vinnova, the Swedish government's innovation agency. (See Eurobites: Telia, Ericsson snuggle up on 5G testbed.) CityFibre extends backhaul deal with VodafoneThree. CityFibre, the largest of the UK's chasing pack of alternative network operators (altnets), has extended its existing backhaul contract with VodafoneThree to bolster the mobile operator's 5G standalone ambitions. More than 330,000 Vodafone residential broadband customers are already connected to CityFibre, says the altnet, with services including Vodafone's 2.2Gbit/s symmetrical home broadband service via CityFibre's XGS-PON network. (See CityFibre CTO has five-star broadband plan to beat Openreach.) Eutelsat lands AST maritime gig. Maritime connectivity specialist AST Networks has signed a new multi-year deal with Eutelsat to extend its use of Eutelsat's OneWeb low-Earth orbit (LEO) satellite services offering. Eutelsat and OneWeb merged in 2023, forming what the companies described at the time as the world's first integrated GEO-LEO integrated satellite communications operator. (See Eurobites: Eutelsat orders 340 more OneWeb LEO satellites.) MasOrange chooses Polystar's analytics. Spanish mobile operator MasOrange has gone with Polystar's Kalix and Osix network analytics software following its integration of two previously separate mobile networks - Orange Spain's and MasMovil's. In the wake of the integration, MasOrange says it required a single platform to align KPIs, replace legacy systems and provide consistent visibility across its network. The deployment is described as a hybrid, combining centralized on-premises installation with scalable cloud-based processing using Google Cloud and Kubernetes. DNA awarded Oulu project. The local authority in the Finnish city of Oulu has chosen DNA to be its provider of regional networks and Internet connections after a tendering process. As part of the deal, DNA will set up around 300 corporate network connections. DNA is also involved in the "6G Rocket" project being led by the University of Oulu, which aims to develop AI-enabled radio networks. Iliad upgraded. Iliad's credit rating has been upgraded from Ba3 to Ba2 after it secured €10 billion ($11.45 billion) in bank financing commitments in the space of a few days. The first tranche, €6.5 billion ($7.4 billion), was earmarked for the proposed joint acquisition - along with Orange and Bouygues - of rival French operator SFR, agreed earlier this month. (See French telcos strike €20.4B deal to buy Altice's SFR.) GSMA spots RoC potential. A new report from the GSMA claims that targeted policy and regulatory reforms in the telecom sphere could "unlock" 870 billion West African francs ($1.48 billion) in additional economic value for the Republic of Congo, creating more than 144,000 jobs and connecting more than half a million additional people to mobile Internet services by 2030. Currently, says the GSMA, only 19% of the population uses mobile Internet, while 70% of those within coverage remain offline. Assistant Editor, Europe, Light Reading Paul is based on the Isle of Wight, a rocky outcrop off the English coast that is home only to a colony of technology journalists and several thousand puffins. He has worked as a writer and copy editor since the age of William Caxton, covering the design industry, D-list celebs, tourism and much, much more. During the noughties Paul took time out from his page proofs and marker pens to run a small hotel with his other half in the wilds of Exmoor. There he developed a range of skills including carrying cooked breakfasts, lying to unwanted guests and stopping leaks with old towels. Now back, slightly befuddled, in the world of online journalism, Paul is thoroughly engaged with the modern world, regularly firing up his VHS video recorder and accidentally sending text messages to strangers using a chipped Nokia feature phone. Want more Light Reading stories in your Google search results? Join 62,000+ members. Yes it's completely free.