France’s competition authority has rejected incumbent Orange’s request to suspend a mobile network sharing deal between two of its rivals, Bouygues Telecom and SFR.
The regulator justified its decision by saying the agreement did not pose a serious…
France’s competition authority has rejected incumbent Orange’s request to suspend a mobile network sharing deal between two of its rivals, Bouygues Telecom and SFR.
The regulator justified its decision by saying the agreement did not pose a serious or immediate threat to either Orange, consumers or the sector.
Early this year, SFR and Bouygues agreed to jointly operate 11,500 towers that would enable them to cover 57% of France’s population. They also have a temporary 4G roaming agreement in place that runs until the end of 2016.
In May, the incumbent filed a complaint with the authority, arguing that the agreement was anticompetitive because it covers a large area of the country. Orange also wanted the deal to be suspended until SFR was actually sold to Numericable, so the impact on the French telecoms landscape could be better assessed.
Conglomerate Vivendi agreed to sell SFR to Altice and its local cable unit Numericable earlier this year. However, Orange is concerned that the converged entity will compete directly with its operations. Its CEO Stephane Richard said a few months back that his company was planning to also complain to the regulator about certain aspects of the proposed merger.
Orange has said it will appeal the authority’s decision on the Bouygues-SFR network deal.
