four mobile network operators. The Minister for the Digital Economy, Fleur Pellerin, and the Competition Authority, have been constantly hammering this principle, since the sensational arrival of Free Mobile in January 2012, which has upset the balance of market prices dropping drastically and conquering more than 6 million customers in just over a year. Eighteen months later, the tsunami caused the first replica of scale: the number two and number three French mobile announced Monday evening the opening of exclusive negotiations with a view to sharing a portion of their networks (mobile), a “ strategic” agreement, they hope loop before the end of the year. The ambition is to offer “ the best geographic coverage and better quality of service “, even if the goal, unspoken at this stage is to save and share the investment . Bouygues Telecom ended 2012 in the red, losing 16 million euros.
The Competition Authority against a national pooling
“ sharing envisaged by Bouygues Telecom and SFR part of their mobile networks, is comparable to devices the same type already implemented in other European countries “provide subsidiaries of Bouygues and Vivendi in a joint statement, adding that” each operator retain a capacity for independent innovation and total commercial independence . “The latter is key to reaping the consent of the government, which had specifically consulted the Competition Authority on the subject of sharing networks. The President of the competition watchdog, Bruno Lasserre, who stressed the need to put an end to the roaming agreement between Free and Orange in 2016 and 2018, was very clear in March on sharing: very favorable sharing of so-called “passive” as towers, rooftop terraces, the cables that connect the antennas to the bas e stations, facilities, installations etc., which do not pose competition problems, it was much more reserved about sharing the “active” part (RAN sharing), which is to share antennas, base stations, controllers and transmission links. Asked about the case of SFR and Bouygues, chairman of the Competition Authority had said that reconciliation would only be acceptable in some areas and not nationally.
SFR and Bouygues also talk of sharing a portion of their networks remains unclear. The agreement will be subject to discussions sages of rue de l’Echelle and telecoms regulator, ARCEP. “ Agreement is not signed, it is too early to say ” responded Monday night a senior official. A Bercy on Monday evening, Arnaud Monterbourg, the Minister of Productive Recovery and Fleur Pellerin said in a statement “ take note ‘of these discussions and assured that” the gove rnment remains vigilant “on their implementation” so that each player continues to take its share of investment in the deployment of new networks . “Bouygues Telecom, which recently received a blow regulatory thumb on the reuse of GSM frequencies (1800 MHz), will have a” national “coverage of its 4G network to mobile broadband from 1 October (at least 40% population), which can be served accelerator in discussions with SFR, which has almost twice as many mobile subscribers (21 million against 11.3 million). 4G is indeed allow operators to “recreate value” (read higher prices). Vivendi full strategic focus on entertainment and content, plans to split SFR by a “spin-off” (distribution of shares). She refused the advances of shareholders Numericable last fall. While both operators have implemented voluntary redundancy plans last year (542 positions at Bouygues, SFR 1123 cuts off creations), unions say al ready vigilant about the possible social consequences of this merger networks.
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