France

Orange France loses patience with Free Mobile

Orange France’s VP of wholesale, Brigitte Bourgoin, has sent a letter to Iliad CEO Maxime Lombardini complaining of the strain that its subsidiary Free Mobile is putting on its network.

France allocates LTE spectrum

French regulator Arcep has announced that all four of the country’s major operators have won licences to use its 2.6 GHz frequency band, which will be used in the deployment of LTE mobile networks. Orange/France Telecom will be allocated a duplex frequency block of 20 MHz, for which it bid €287.12m, while Iliad’s Free Mobile will also be allocated the same, after bidding €271m.

France rejects call to stop wireless auction

France’s Conseil d’Etat (Council of State)has rejected a bid by mobile operator Iliad to stop the government’s auction of 4G mobile licences. The company had petitioned the court for an emergency injunction to halt the auction, ahead of its September 15 launch date, saying it was not fair to all telecom operators.

French broadband subs top 21 mil.

The number of broadband subscribers in France had reached 21.774 million by the end of the first quarter of 2011, up slightly from 20.234 million one year previously, according to the latest market report from the country’s telecoms regulatory body Arcep.

France launches LTE spectrum auction

The French auction for LTE spectrum is now imminent after French digital economy minister Éric Besson signed a decree launching the tender for operators to submit their bids, The process will begin in the coming days, French newspaper Le Monde reported, once the announcement is published in an official gazette. Operators will have until September to submit their bids.

France Telecom looking to “adapt and conquer”

France Telecom (FT) has announced a two-phased strategic and financial plan for 2011-2015 which the company is calling “adapt to conquer.” Announced at the telco’s Investor Day on Tuesday, the strategy, which is part of the group’s ongoing “Conquests” programme, will focus on investment and cost reduction to improve cash flow and growth at the company.

Rural France in line for Europe’s fastest LTE service

The future for fast internet in rural areas in France has received a boost with the announcement by the Éric Besson, Minister of Industry, Energy and the Digital Economy, that mobile operators would be able to acquire two blocks of 15MHz channels in the 800MHz band. One would be used for download and the other dedicated to upload.

EU to take legal action against France and Spain over telecoms taxes

France and Spain are to be taken to court by the EU over telecoms taxes. According to reports from Reuters, the EU executive will take legal action over taxes imposed on telecoms companies aimed at compensating for the end of advertising on public television stations. An unnamed source has said that such taxes are deemed to be incompatible with EU telecoms rules, which require specific charges on telecoms operators to be directly related to meeting the costs of regulating the telecoms sector.

French carriers form micropayment venture

French carriers Orange, SFR and Bouygues have joined forces with IT services firm Atos Origin to form a new joint venture dedicated to exploring a mobile payments initiative.

Orange Business Services acquires French integrator Alsy

Orange Business Services has acquired Alsy, a French company integrating Microsoft communications solutions. This acquisition further enhances the offering of Orange Business Services in the full range of Microsoft technologies, by rounding out the agreement signed with Microsoft in 2009 to distribute the standard Microsoft Online Services offer in 21 countries.

SFR looks to clouds for enterprise offering

French carrier SFR has tapped HP to build it a complete cloud services platform designed to enable the service provider to offer cloud-based services with utility-based pricing to French companies.

SFR launches femtocells in France

French operator SFR became the second European carrier to commercially introduce femtocells this week, following Vodafone’s UK launch in July.

France Telecom replaces deputy CEO

To alleviate concerns over the number of suicides taking place among employees of French incumbent France Telecom, the carrier has replaced its number two executive.

Orange serves up access to Wikipedia

Mobile operator Orange has struck a deal with dispute resolution tool and fact finding site Wikipedia in a bid to boost mobile data traffic.

France to break up fourth 3G licence

It looks increasingly like competition in the French mobile sector will increase with the introduction of a new 3G licensee, according to French authorities Monday. At a press conference at Matignon Monday morning, French prime minister, Francois Fillon, said that the proposed fourth 3G licence will now be split into three 5MHz lots, with one […]

Watchdog cancels deal between Orange and Apple

French mobile operator Orange admitted Wednesday that it has been struck a serious blow as the local Competition Council ordered the carrier to dissolve its exclusive iPhone contract with Apple. Although legal challenges to Apple’s exclusivity contracts with mobile operators have been raised in the past, most notably in Germany, the French watchdog’s decision is […]

Orange building Apple-style app store for IPTV

The mobile division of France Telecom, Orange, has confirmed plans to build an Apple-style app store for its IPTV service. Informa Telecoms & Media analyst, Rob Gallagher, revealed this week that Orange will lay the ground work for the marketplace at its annual Partner Camp event to be held in Cape Canaveral this month. There, […]

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