Iliad sees 3G licence decision soon, Q1 sales up

(Recasts with management quotes, adds details, analyst quote, shares)

By Cyril Altmeyer and Astrid Wendlandt

PARIS, Oct 29 (Reuters) - French broadband Internet provider Iliad (ILD.PA) said on Monday it expected a political decision soon regarding its bid for France's last remaining 3G licence as it posted a 29.4 percent rise in third-quarter sales.

"We think that we are not very far from a political decision ... The ball is clearly in the government's camp," Iliad Finance Director Olivier Rosenfeld told Reuters in a telephone interview.

Iliad's bid for the country's fourth 3G licence had been rejected by the telecoms regulator for not meeting set financial criteria. The operator was asking, among other things, for new licence terms such as a split of the 619.2 million-euro ($889.7 million) licence fee into deferred annual payments.

"We are doing all the lobbying possible to obtain this licence under the conditions we have asked for," Rosenfeld added. His comments came after the company posted revenues for the three months to Sept. 30 of 307 million euros ($441.1 million), up from 237.2 million euros a year earlier.

Iliad shares were up 3.45 percent at 75 euros at 0801 GMT.

Iliad said it had won 141,000 new consumer broadband subscribers in the quarter which brought the total to 2.767 million.

Rosenfeld said Iliad would have more than 2.8 million residential broadband subscribers by the end of 2007 and 4 million by 2010.

"We do not have any concerns for the fourth quarter," he added.

The company repeated that it would maintain a gross average margin of 20 euros a month per subscriber.

"The numbers are completely in line with my estimates," Cheuvreux analyst Remi Thomas said.

"It looks also as though they (Iliad) are gaining market share compared to Neuf Cegetel," he added.

(Additional reporting by Juliette Rouillon in Paris)

((Reporting by Astrid Wendlandt and Cyril Altmeyer, editing by Erica Billingham/Rory Channing; Paris Equities, astrid.wendlandt@reuters.com, +33 1 49 49 54 40))

($1=.6959 Euro)

($1=.6959 Euro) Keywords: ILIAD SALES/

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