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Arcep to bring about termination of Free Mobile’s roaming deal with Orange, SFR/Bouygues 4G sharing arrangement within next few years.
Arcep this week published a document outlining its plans to force the end of mobile network-sharing arrangements in France, specifically Free Mobile’s roaming deal on the Orange network, and Bouygues Telecom and SFR’s 4G infrastructure-sharing set-up.
The French regulator said the two deals are impacting on investment in the sector and laid out a proposed timetable for bringing them to a close.
It has opened the document for public consultation. Interested parties have until 23 February to submit comments, including their views on the dates they believe the various contracts should be brought to an end.
Arcep is tackling Free Mobile’s deal with Orange in two stages. It proposes requiring the pair to end their roaming arrangement for 3G-equivalent high-speed mobile services sometime between the end of 2018 and the end of 2020, but it will permit Free Mobile to use Orange’s network for 2G voice, SMS and low-speed services until between the start of 2020 and the end of 2022.
"If this solution was justified to accompany the fourth mobile operator’s entry into the marketplace, it cannot be justified over the long term," Arcep said. "The roadmap for terminating roaming agreements must now be defined, parallel to Free Mobile network rollouts."
In its third-quarter results presentation in November, Free Mobile parent Iliad said it added close to 2,550 new 4G mobile sites during the first nine months of the year, bringing its total to 4,648 as of the end of September, giving it 57% population coverage.
Arcep is also addressing a 4G network-sharing agreement between SFR and Bouygues Telecom.
The operators have a sharing deal in place for 2G, 3G and 4G networks over a sizeable portion of metropolitan France, and Arcep said it "wants to ensure that this wide-reaching agreement indeed enables, as the two operators have indicated, improved coverage and quality of service for users."
The regulator noted that the agreement enables SFR customers to roam on part of Bouygues Telecom’s 4G infrastructure.
"Because investments in 4G infrastructure are crucial to the market’s vitality, Arcep is calling for a specific end date for superfast (4G equivalent) roaming which, at this stage, has been set at between the end of 2016 and the end of 2018," the regulator said.
Finally, Arcep indicated that it is aware that consolidation moves could change the shape of the French mobile market, making a comment that it perhaps good news for Orange and Bouygues Telecom, who admitted earlier this month that they are holding M&A talks.
"Arcep stresses that the document being published today for consultation was drafted by taking into account the market’s current structure of four mobile network operators in metropolitan France," it said. "Here too, the initial analysis could be amended should the market structure evolve."
