German mobile service provider Drillisch has reported service revenue of EUR139.6 million (USD186.6 million) for the six months ended 30 June 2014, a slight increase of 0.4% from EUR139.0 million in the year-ago period. Group earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) rose 24.2% over the same period from EUR34.1 million to EUR42.4 million, while gross profit increased by 21.2% year-on-year to EUR68.0 million. Adjusted for the effects from the reduction of its stake in freenet, Drillisch posted consolidated profit for the reporting period of EUR25.4 million, up 22.4% from EUR20.7 million in H1 2013. At 30 June 2014 the company had a total MVNO customer base of 1.815 million, compared to 1.593 million a year earlier.
Through its wholly-owned subsidiary MS Mobile Services, Drillisch concluded a mobile bitstream access (MBA) MVNO agreement with Telefonica Germany on 20 June 2014. Under the deal, Telefonica will grant MS Mobile access to up to 30% of the network capacity that is available after its merger with E-Plus, for all present and future technologies. The basic term of the agreement is five years, though this can be extended by means of two five-year call options held by MS Mobile. In return, MS Mobile has agreed to take over at least 20% of the present and future network capacity for new customers for the basic term of five years, using a glide path. In addition, there is a certain minimum capacity which has been defined for existing customers. MS Mobile will also initially take over 50 shop locations from Telefonica, with the option of acquiring up to 550 additional locations. The technical launch will take place at the earliest on 1 January 2015 and at the latest on 1 July 2015. Drillisch said the group is ‘in an outstanding position to improve its market position as well as its business volume significantly in the years to come, and to have permanent access to all products and technologies that are or will be available in the largest German wireless network’.