Orange Group has revealed that its Capex fell by 5.8 percent to €1.6 billion in the first quarter of 2022 despite investing in 5G networks and fiber broadband business.

At 31 March 2022, Orange had 58.5 million households connectable to FTTH worldwide (an increase of 17.7 percent).

Orange has 11.6 million (+18.3 percent) FTTH customers in Europe.

Orange has 30 million (+23 percent) FTTH connectable lines in France.

Orange has 16.3 million (+5 percent) VHBB connectable lines in Spain.

Orange has 6.2 million (+19 percent) FTTH connectable lines in Poland.

Orange did not reveal the number of 5G subscribers or 5G related investments.

Orange said it will make an investment of €7.4 billion in mobile networks during the year focusing on 5G and fiber.

Orange Group CEO Christel Heydemann said: “We continue to reap the benefits of our European fiber and 5G network leadership with a 2 percent rise in our retail sales growth in three months. We now have 11.6 million convergent customers in Europe and over half of Orange’s fixed broadband customer.”

Orange’s revenues rose 0.7 percent to €10.582 billion in the first quarter, driven by Africa & Middle East (+8.7 percent).

Orange said Africa & Middle East are its main business growth drivers, with most African countries producing double-digit growth thanks to new telecoms services that are off-setting the heightened competition for Orange Money.

Revenue of Orange in Africa & Middle East increased 8.7 percent to €1.668 billion.

Revenue of Orange France fell by 0.7 percent to €4.386 billion as the faster pace of retail services growth has yet to offset the decline in Wholesale.

Revenues of Orange Spain dropped 4.6 percent. The other European countries were stable.

Revenues from Totem, the telecom tower business of Orange, grew 12.2 percent to 161 million euros in the first quarter of 2022.

Orange had 11.6 million convergent customers at 31 March 2022, up 1.6 percent year on year. Mobile services had 231.8 million access lines at 31 March 2022, a rise of 5.3 percent year on year, including 88.3 million contracts, an increase of 8.0 percent.

Orange’s fixed services totaled 46.2 million access lines (1.9 percent lower), including 12.8 million (+19.6 percent) high-speed broadband connections. Fixed narrowband access lines fell 13.4 percent. Mobile Financial Services had 1.8 million customers in Europe and 0.8 million customers in Africa.