ForthNet’s broadband user base shrinks, revenues slip but EBITDA rises 3.2%

Greece’s largest alternative broadband provider ForthNet has reported that its EBITDA for the first six months of 2012 climbed 3.2% year-on-year to EUR43.6 million (USD54.6 million), in spite of a 0.8% fall in half-year revenues to EUR206.7 million, as cost cutting helped alleviate effects of a weak economy on its triple-play fixed line, internet and TV services. ForthNet reported that it gained 16,000 net new broadband internet customers year-on-year to reach 518,000 at the end of June 2012, but this represented a loss of 10,000 active lines since the end of March. It added that 96% of broadband subscriber lines are now based on local loop unbundling (LLU), a segment in which it claimed to take a market share of over 28% at mid-2012, although down from around 30% at the beginning of the year.