Free ISP LibertySurf's most recent head count listed 610,000 subscribers, the company said, making it a serious competitor to regional portal favorite Wanadoo.

LibertySurf CEO Pierre Besnainou announced that LibertySurf had enlisted 608,990 opened accounts with 813,855 opened mailboxes. However, only 338,000 subscribers are shown to have used their account in the past 40 days.

As for the audience, the ISP announced 40 million pages were read and that approximately 4,000 new users registered each day of the last month.

LibertySurf also announced that it will take a major stake in the capital of X-Stream, the third largest free British ISP, which boasts half a million opened accounts. X-Stream also operates in Germany, and is planning to launch in Spain, Italy and Belgium.

LibertySurf also confirms its intention of selling off at least 20 percent of its capital and enter a regulated French stock market, and is relying on Deutsche Bank for the project.

Fourty-five percent of LibertySurf is owned by Europ@web, which belongs to the Arnault Group, and by Kingfisher, which also has an major stake in the capital of X-Stream.