The chairman of the French competition authority has spoken out against consolidation in the telecoms sector, describing a return to three operators as undesirable.
Bruno Lasserre, chairman of the Autorite de la Concurrence, said in an interview with…
The chairman of the French competition authority has spoken out against consolidation in the telecoms sector, describing a return to three operators as undesirable.
Bruno Lasserre, chairman of the Autorite de la Concurrence, said in an interview with French newspaper Le Figaro that, while he doesn’t take sides on hypothetical matters, he would oppose a merger between operators. However, he said he would not stand in the way of companies pooling their networks to cut costs and speed up service rollouts. He noted that such a model has worked will in the subsea cable sector, in which operators have built infrastructure together while remaining competitive.
The authority will present its opinion on the subject to the government in late February, he said.
Lassere’s comments come amid speculation that the French mobile sector may experience consolidation in response to increased competition following the arrival of Iliad’s Free a year ago.
Last month, Vivendi’s SFR and Bouygues Telecom confirmed that they are discussing sharing their networks. The latter released a short statement saying the operators are looking at pooling their resources in less populous areas of France, identified by the government as “priority deployment” zones for 4G technology.
Vivendi is said to have held talks with several operators, also including Free and cableco Numericable.
Network sharing and competition concerns are key issues throughout the European Union at present, with commissioner Neelie Kroes recently outlining plans to create a more unified, competitive and profitable European telecoms sector. In an interview with the UK’s Financial Times earlier this week, the EC commissioner for the digital agenda highlighted asset sharing as a means of stimulating competition and investment.
Kroes’ comments followed news that executives from EU telcos including Deutsche Telekom, France Telecom, Telecom Italia and Telefonica are looking at how to create a more harmonised European telecoms sector, with network sharing among the possibilities.
France Telecom’s Orange is currently the nation’s largest mobile operator, followed by SFR, Bouygues and Free respectively.
