Orange has added its highest number of mobile customers in three years, but lost further ground in the fight for fixed-line broadband users.

The third-largest mobile operator added 257,000 new customers in the three months to September, a 2 per cent year-on-year rise that took its customer base to 16.1 million. Of those new users, 194,000 were contract customers, bringing the ratio of its subscriber base on a long-term deal to more than 41 per cent.

Orange will launch the iPhone on November 10, as disclosed in The Times last week, and has received 250,000 pre-registrations for Apple’s popular handset, suggesting that its customer base could swell further.

With T-Mobile recently hinting that it has returned to growth in the UK during the current quarter, Orange’s growth raises questions about the performance of Vodafone in its home market during the current quarter. Vodafone lost 159,000 customers in the UK during the second quarter.

Orange also dampened suggestions that growth in the mobile data business is slowing down. The network has 4.7 million customers accessing the internet via its mobile network, a 65 per cent increase year-on-year. Data services accounted for 25 per cent of its overall £1.14 billion revenue performance during the quarter.

Yet while Orange’s mobile business is back on the growth trail, its fixed-line broadband division has continued to fall behind its rivals at an alarming rate. The company lost 55,000 fixed-line broadband users during the quarter, falling 12 per cent to 899,000 from 954,000 in the previous quarter.

The company recently increased speeds on its own network to “up to” 20 megabits per second and revised its price plans. However, the future of the broadband business, which was previously one of the UK’s largest under the Wanadoo and Freeserve brands, may not be so bright if the company does not stem the customer exodus.

France Télécom, which owns Orange, reported lower than expected earnings in the third quarter and gave a bleak outlook for the final quarter of the year. Management at France Télécom said that sales have not been affected by the scandal over workers’ suicides, but it expects discussions with unions to affect its profitability.

Times Recommends

• Lies and cover-up at MG Rover exposed by report
• High oil prices push manufacturing costs up
• Primark founder steps down as chief executive