Paris, 23 July 2013
SFR and Bouygues Telecom announced yesterday that they will be entering into exclusive negotiations over the deployment of a shared mobile network that will cover a portion of Metropolitan France by 2014.
ARCEP has taken note of this announcement and reminds the public that the framework for 4G licence awards, which it introduced in 2011, both supports and encourages this type of sharing agreement, under certain conditions.
The final version of the agreement must allow operators both to rationalise their costs whilst maintaining a satisfactory level of competition, and to enable users across the country to enjoy better service.
In accordance with the terms and conditions of the 4G licences issued to mobile operators in late 2011 and early 2012, this agreement must be submitted to ARCEP to ensure that it complies with the legal and regulatory framework governing electronic communications in France.
Linked documents
For more details: in response to the Government, on March 11, the French Competition Authority issued an opinion on the terms and conditions governing mobile network sharing and roaming. Asked for its views on the issue, on 20 December 2012 ARCEP sent an opinion to the Competition Authority, and later published it on 11 March 2013.
ARCEP opinion (in French only) and press release 
Competition Authority opinion (pdf - 440KB) and the press release (in French only)