SFR and Bouygues Telecom pool their networks… to resist falling prices (Updated)

Updated this Friday 31
January: One
official press releasehas just confirmed the information from
the article below published this Monday, January 27.

In broad terms, here is the information to remember:

Bouygues
Telecomet
SFRhave just signed an agreement to pool part of their
mobile networks
It will be deployed in an area corresponding to57% of the
population(i.e. the entire territory outside the 32 plus
large agglomerations of more than 200,000 inhabitants and white areas) a
new shared network
Each operator will keep acommercial independence and
tarifftotal, and differentiated services
The pooling agreement comes into force upon signature and should
lead to thefinalization of the target network at the end of 2017

An inevitable start of consolidation?

Find below our original article from Monday January 27:

The two operatorsSFR
and Bouygues had announced that they had been in discussions since July in order to
pool their networksto cope with falling prices.

In fact, since the arrival ofFreeand the
generalization of low-cost offers, operators are seeking to reduce their
costs of developing or maintaining their respective networks. This project of
pooling is well advanced and will be studied this Friday by the councils
of directors of the two companies with a view tobuild a network
unique:AND

Obviously, this agreement must take into account the infrastructure in place, the
coverage or multiple technologies and frequencies of each.

Thus, except in the heart of large cities,the two operators
are considering setting up a structure to jointly exploit part of their
antennas. The renewal and maintenance of the network will therefore cost
cheaper for operators who should even be able to remove antennas
in order to avoid duplicates.

Once this decision has been made, the French Federation of
Télécoms validates this choice, which should take place this Friday evening.

It will be interesting to follow this development which will certainly
think about the direct competitors that are Orange and Free who continue
to assume sole responsibility for the evolution of their networks, while still having an agreement
Network “loan” passed by Orange with Free.

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