Vivendi’s SFR and fellow French telco Bouygues Telecom are discussing sharing their mobile networks.
The operators are looking at pooling resources in less populous areas of France, Bouygues said in a brief announcement released in response to recent…
Vivendi’s SFR and fellow French telco Bouygues Telecom are discussing sharing their mobile networks.
The operators are looking at pooling resources in less populous areas of France, Bouygues said in a brief announcement released in response to recent press reports. Such areas have been identified by the French regulator as “priority deployment” zones for 4G technology.
A Vivendi spokesperson said SFR has held ongoing “technical conversations” with Bouygues about network sharing, but declined to comment further.
A Bouygues spokesperson refused to elaborate on the earlier statement.
French newspaper Journal du Dimanche reported on Sunday that Bouygues and SFR have been in “exploratory” talks for ten days about the possible alliance. The report quoted a source close to SFR as saying that while the regulator would not allow a full-scale merger, a network sharing agreement is a definite possibility. Financial analysts were cited as saying such an agreement would save Bouygues about €450m annually.
Vivendi is said to have held talks with various other local operators to address the increased competition in the local mobile market since Iliad launched its low-cost service Free in January.
In mid-November, a source with knowledge of the situation told TelecomFinance Vivendi was in “very serious” talks with cableco Numericable about a possible tie-up. French and international media reports have said the media and telecoms conglomerate has also held discussions with Iliad, owned by French billionaire Xavier Niel. Meanwhile, Egyptian telecoms investor Naguib Sawiris said in a mid-November that he is interested in SFR as well as Telecom Italia.
However, the Journal du Dimanche report stated, without citing sources, that SFR has set aside tie-up discussions with Iliad because of competition concerns. Talks with Numericable have also been halted.
France Telecom’s Orange is currently the nation’s largest mobile operator, followed by SFR, Bouygues and Free respectively.
