freenet posts 3.4% rise in Q1 mobile revenues

freenet has reported consolidated revenues of EUR775.2 million (USD1.01 billion) for the first three months of 2013, compared to EUR757.2 million in the year-ago period, on the back of a 3.4% year-on-year rise in mobile communications sales to EUR767.5 million. Group EBITDA increased slightly from EUR85.1 million in Q1 2012 to EUR85.3 million in the same period of 2013, while group net income increased by 48% year-on-year from EUR42.0 million to EUR60.2 million. At 31 March 2013 freenet’s mobile customer base totalled 13.71 million (down from 14.74 million twelve months earlier), of which 5.24 million were pre-paid customers (compared to 6.58 million at end-March 2012), 5.80 million were contract users (up slightly from 5.69 million a year earlier) and the remaining 2.67 million were ‘no-frills’ customers (primarily comprised of mobile contracts completed online in the discount market), up from 2.46 million twelve months previously. Commenting on the results, freenet’s CEO, Christoph Vilanek, said: ‘This positive development confirms our strategic course of building the freenet Group into the leading digital lifestyle provider of high-quality products and services related to our core business of mobile communications.’