freenet sees growth in mobile telephony

German telecom provider freenet AG is on course for growth in its core mobile telephony business. In the second quarter, the number of customers increased by 170,000 to 6 mln, a gain of 749,000 (14%) compared with the first half of 2007. Customer growth in the first half is reflected in the number of contract customers (now at 3.1 mln) as well as prepaid customers (2.9 mln).
In Mobile Telephony, freenet AG boosted sales by EUR 6.6 mln from the previous quarter to EUR 283.3 mln. Gross profit in the segment has also improved in the second quarter of 2008 to EUR 82.6 mln – a gain of EUR 8.9 mln or 12.1% compared with the first quarter of 2008. The company's good positioning in the Mobile Telephony segment bodes well for the future, particularly following the acquisition of the debitel Group at the beginning of July thus entering the commercial sector.
In the first half of 2008, Group sales declined by EUR 42 mln compared with the corresponding previous year period, from EUR 919.3 mln to 877.3 mln.The decline in sales in the Narrowband segment alone (which is shrinking due to technology reasons) amounted to EUR 43 mln. In the other segments, sales overall were maintained at the previous year level despite difficult conditions in the German Internet and telecoms market, with a continuing erosion of prices, extremely competitive complete packages and regulatory restrictions.
The Portal and Hosting segments also held up well in the second quarter. The Portal
segment reported sales of EUR 14.2 mln, a gain of 11.6% compared with the first quarter. Hosting sales increased by 5% from the previous quarter, to EUR 22 mln.
Gross profit of the Group improved this year, to EUR 147.5 mln in Q2 2008 – a slight increase of 2.2% compared with the previous quarter.