Paris, 5 April 2011
The French Postal and electronic communications regulatory authority, ARCEP, is publishing the decision it issued in response to a request to settle a dispute between the companies SFR and France Telecom that was filed on 3 December 2010.
ARCEP rejects the request submitted by SFR
As part of its business operations in the fixed calling market, SFR purchases from France Telecom a wholesale electronic communications technical solution for customers wanting to switch from France Telecom to SFR and keep their landline number. The pricing structure of this France Telecom service includes two components, allowing the request to be processed automatically (used chiefly for residential customers) or manually (for business customers).
SFR had complained about the prices charged for this technical service and called on ARCEP to settle the dispute, in accordance with the provisions contained in Article L. 36-8 of the French Postal and electronic communications code.
Having completed its analysis, ARCEP rejected the SFR request, considering that it was unfair to impose on France Telecom a ceiling price applied to the average of the two fixed number retention tariffs, as SFR was requesting.
ARCEP begins work on assessing the cost of implementing fixed number portability
In its Decision No. 2009-0637 of 23 July 2009, ARCEP stipulated the terms governing the implementation of fixed number portability and the routing of calls from fixed and mobile numbers.
As an extension of this decision and of the efforts being made with the sector’s stakeholders to continue to improve number portability processes, the Authority is beginning work with the players to achieve a detailed definition of the cost accounting, cost recovery and pricing methods tied to fixed number portability services, as it did for mobile number portability requests in its Decision No. 2008-0513 of 27 May 2008.
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