Link to artcile in french {http://bit.ly/1p5MarL}
The acquisition of Bouygues Telecom Orange is the key.
Free accelerate the exchange of a fiber network.
Plans of the cathedral are already drawn. To provide a beautiful fiber optic network to French, Bercy expected a bold building. According to our information, the keystone is the marriage between Orange and Bouygues Telecom, a continuing study seriously the two groups, even if all options are open and if the project leaders involved multiply oratorical.
The objective of this intellectual construction is to accelerate the deployment of very high speed, to fill the presidential goal to cover the entire population by 2022, 80% in fiber to the home (FTTH ). If the lack of financial resources is a nagging concern is the merger SFR-Numericable who alerted the government. Orange and SFR were co-invest in so-called "moderately dense" areas, those that can be profitable provided it does not duplicate infrastructure. SFR but preferred to concentrate its efforts on marketing its new cable network. And Orange has announced that it would mark the panties, investing heavily ... in the same place. 6 or 7 million people in the part of the medium density areas where there is no cable so may wait a very long high speed. It is to avoid this nightmare scenario that Bercy devises an alternative project.
First phase of the plan: the incumbent would buy number three and Bouygues ascend to the Orange capital, possibly by buying shares on the market to hold a controlling interest.
Second step, resell Orange mobile network Bouygues Telecom and some of its frequencies Free Mobile. As mounting imagined in the failed marriage between Bouygues Telecom and SFR, this would both make some money back into the coffers and make the operation more presentable concentration with the competition watchdog. While the transaction amounted to € 1.8 billion as part of the operation SFR, Orange tries, according to our information, to negotiate a $ 2.2 to 2.3 billion euros, of which approximately 1.5 billion for the network and 800 million for the frequencies.
Free could make a financial effort, because it would be the ideal configuration. The fourth mobile operator is poor frequency and complains technical constraints that hinder deployments. It recover all of a sudden a comprehensive network for an amount that is reasonable. And this without endangering its low cost structure - the operator had not wanted to take the Bouygues network technicians in the previous agreement.
Bold fixtures
Xavier Niel group could also buy Bouygues Telecom Orange entirely up but he would destroy thousands of jobs and thus alienating the government to keep its agility. Crowning the building, Free would commit to co-invest in FTTH alongside Orange. According to information that has not been confirmed by the two operators, Free would be willing to contract to spend 300 million euros over five years. 1.5 billion in total, the cost for the mobile network Bouygues.
This association could also take the form of a joint venture. The project called "Poppy" of joint venture between Orange and the Caisse des Dépôts is not dead, it just reappears in another form: a coalition including Orange, Free, Caisse des Dépôts, even investment funds private which would deploy in the unwired area and whose power combined strike would convert some of the unprofitable zone profitable area. We can not tax the architect reluctance State ...