News
French operators amend national roaming agree; Free will reduce usage of Orange’s network from January.
Orange has brokered a deal with Free Mobile that will bring about the end of a national roaming deal between the pair, as mandated by French telecoms regulator Arcep.
Free Mobile has piggybacked on Orange’s network, alongside rolling out infrastructure of its own, since it launched as a disruptive force in the French mobile market at the start of 2012. Earlier this year Arcep called upon the telcos to terminate the arrangement, arguing that it impacted upon investment in the sector.
According to the new deal, inked on Tuesday, Free Mobile will gradually reduce its usage of Orange’s network for 2G and 3G services from January 2017. The agreement runs until 2020.
"This contract will be communicated to the French regulator, Arcep, which must verify its coherence with the outline recommendations published on 25 May 2016," Orange said, in a statement.
Iliad’s Free Mobile, meanwhile, talked up the progress it has made in the rollout of its own infrastructure.
Having invested heavily in network equipment and in spectrum, Free said its 3G network covers 84.5% of the French population while 4G coverage stands at 68.3%.
The telco recently said its 11.9 million strong mobile customer base – including 4.25 million 4G customers – gave it a market share in excess of 17% at the end of the first quarter.
Free Mobile contributed €483.6 million to its parent company’s revenues in Q1, an increase of 10.4% year on year.
It had hoped to further develop its presence in the market by snapping up assets divested by a merged Orange and Bouygues Telecom, but that potential deal collapsed in April.
