Orange signs up 50 millionth subscriber

On the eve of its 10th birthday and with a new CEO barely settled in his chair, Orange has announced that it's broken the 50-million-subscriber mark and grown revenue and ARPU for the quarter.

The France-Telecom-owned mobile operator notched up another 1.2 million subscribers in the course of the last quarter – an 11.5 per cent year-on-year rise from last year's 44.9 million in Q1.

Revenues for the quarter also increased by about 12.1 per cent on a pro-forma basis from the corresponding quarter in 2003 - from €4.2bn to about €4.7bn. ARPU also rose in its key countries of the UK and France with what Orange calls a "better customer mix" – more high-spending contract customers, fewer thrifty pay-as-you-go types.

The French Orange customers have been spending about €382 each, compared to Q1 2003's €375, with contract customers now making up nearly 59 per cent of all customers in the country.

The situation on this side of the channel is similar, with a rise in ARPU from £263 in the first quarter of last year to £273 for Q1 2004. Customer numbers also rose during the past 12 months and now total 13.8 million.

Orange's CEO, Sanjiv Ahuja, said that despite intentions to roll out commercial 3G services in the UK and France in the latter half of this year, the good quarter was due to a more international focus.

"Double-digit revenue growth in our other countries of operation demonstrates the importance of our broad international footprint; nearly a third of our customers reside outside the UK and France," he said in a statement.