Another positive quarter for Fastweb: the steady growth of fixed and mobile customers, of revenues and margins further consolidated its position in the Italian broadband market.
Wireline broadband customers continued to increase as Fastweb added 100 thousand new customers, thus bringing the customer base to 2,6 million (+4% on previous year). Revenues in the first six months totaled 1.049 million Euro, up +4% on Q2 2018.
A steady growth for EBITDA as well that at June 30th reaches 339 million Euro, whereas EBITDA including lease costs reaches 324 million Euro, up 5% on the Q2 2018 on comparable basis. It's the 24th consecutive quarter of growth for customers and margins.
Fastweb keeps pursuing its industrial infrastructure-based convergent strategy with the aim of offering the most performing indoor and outdoor connectivity to its customers. Ongoing investments focus on the development of 5G both as mobile and FWA network, starting from the major cities in the country. A superior infrastructure that will complement the wireline ultrabroadband network already available in 22 million households – 8 million of which are covered by a proprietary FTTx infrastructure. Specifically, Fastweb launched the expansion plan of its ultrabroadband network, with the deployment of 5G FWA network in Biella and Bolzano, and thanks to which the number of families covered by a proprietary ultrabroadband network with download speed up to 1 Gbs will go from the existing 8 million to 16 million by 2024. Thanks to the co-investment deal signed with Wind Tre at the end of June, finally, Fastweb will start the deployment of a shared 5G mobile national network from 2020.
Fastweb thus maintains its primacy in infrastructural investments which total 299 million Euro at June 30th - 28% of revenues, a unique percentage in Europe - keeping up its role in delivering innovation in Italy, with the goal to rapidly deploy a national 5G network and position itself as the leading convergent operator in the country thanks to its key assets, i.e. the fiber deployed in major urban areas, the spectrum portfolio and its FWA network.
Fastweb consolidates its leadership position also in terms of penetration of ultra-broadband connectivity services. By June 30th 1.549.000 wireline customers opted for an ultra-broadband offer (+29% compared to the 1.205.000 customers active in June 2018). Approximately 60% of Fastweb wireline customers - up 6 pp on 2018 and a unique figure in Europe - switched to an ultra-broadband service with download speed up to 1 Gb/s, indicating a growth in the demand for high-performance connectivity and Fastweb commitment in promoting the digital transformation of Italian families and companies.
The Enterprise Business Unit performed well over the quarter with a 13% growth of revenues over the previous year thanks to exceptional performances in the Public Administration segment which is constantly growing in the last six quarters. Fastweb market share in the Enterprise market is now 31% in terms of revenues, and Fastweb is steadily the first alternative operator for business customers.
The performances of the mobile segment over the quarter were also very satisfying. At June 30th Fastweb has 1.629.000 mobile customers, up 27% on the previous year with overall customer growth that continues to be strong despite intense competition in the market. Fastweb confirms its focus on fixed-mobile convergence - increasing to 33% the percentage of customers adopting both fixed and mobile services (+6pp in 12 months).