France - Key Statistics, Telecom Market & Regulatory Overviews

Synopsis

France has the third largest telecoms market in Europe. The incumbent, France Telecom, is one of the world’s major players with interests in markets across Europe and francophone Africa. Despite sector liberalisation, the company still dominates all sectors though increasing competition from a small number of major players (notably SFR and Iliad) has gradually eroded this lead, prompting it to respond with a range of innovative offers and a wide-ranging NeXT strategy to meet future customer needs. It is also investing in a national fibre network, largely in response to the activities of smaller active players in this market. The mobile sector is dominated by a triopoly of providers with relatively low but steadily increasing MVNO competition, while the vibrant broadband market has seen strong growth as a result of regulatory measures promoting competitor access to exchanges through local loop unbundling. This report introduces the key aspects of France’s telecom market in 2010, providing the latest statistics on the country’s fixed network, an analysis of operator strategies in coming years, and a review of the key regulatory issues including the status of number portability, wholesaling and carrier preselection.

Table of Contents

• 1. Synopsis
  
• 2. Key statistics
  
• 3. Telecommunications market
  
  • 3.1 Overview of France’s telecom market
    
• 4. Regulatory environment
  
  • 4.1 History
    
  • 4.2 National legal framework - 2009
    
  • 4.3 France NumErique 2012
    
  • 4.4 Regulatory authority
    
    • 4.4.1 Communications and Postal Regulatory Authority (ARCEP)
      
  • 4.5 Telecom sector liberalisation in France
    
    • 4.5.1 Privatisation of France Telecom
      
    • 4.5.2 Interconnect
      
    • 4.5.3 Access
      
    • 4.5.4 Number portability (NP)
      
    • 4.5.5 Carrier PreSelection (CPS)
      
• 5. Fixed network operators in France
  
  • 5.1 Market overview
    
  • 5.2 Fixed-line statistics
    
  • 5.3 France Telecom
    
    • 5.3.1 Going into 2010
      
    • 5.3.2 Difficulties ahead
      
    • 5.3.3 Future strategies
      
    • 5.3.4 Rebranding
      
  • 5.4 SFR
    
    • 5.4.1 Acquisition of neuf Cegetel
      
  • 5.5 Free (Iliad)
    
• 6. Telecommunications infrastructure
  
  • 6.1 National telecom network
    
  • 6.2 Next Generation Networks (NGNs)
    
  • 6.3 International infrastructure
    
    • 6.3.1 Submarine cable networks
      
    • 6.3.2 Satellite networks
      
    • 6.3.3 Wholesaling
      
• 7. Related reports
  

• Table 1 – Country statistics France – 2009
• Table 2 – Telecom revenue and investment statistics – March 2009
• Table 3 – Telephone network statistics – 2008
• Table 4 – Internet user statistics – September 2009
• Table 5 – Broadband statistics – January 2009
• Table 6 – Mobile statistics – September 2009
• Table 7 – National telecommunications authorities
• Table 8 – Telecom service investment and annual change – 2003 - 2008
• Table 9 – Telecom services revenue by sector and annual change – 2007 - 2008
• Table 10 – End user traffic volume in minutes by sector – 2002 - 2008
• Table 11 – End user traffic growth by sector – 2002 - 2008
• Table 12 – ARPU by sector – 2005 - 2008
• Table 13 – Proportion of telecom market value by sector – 2006 - 2008
• Table 14 – Proportion of fixed-lines by technology – 2004 - 2008
• Table 15 – Internet market value – 2006 - 2008
• Table 16 – End-user telecom market value – 2003 - 2008
• Table 17 – End-user telecom market value annual change – 2003 - 2008
• Table 18 – Fixed lines subscriptions by type - 2003 - 2008
• Table 19 – Fixed-call termination charges – 2008 - 2010
• Table 20 – Interconnect revenue and annual change – 2007 - 2008
• Table 21 – Interconnect volume in minutes and annual change – 2007 - 2008
• Table 22 – France Telecom wholesale broadband lines – 2005 - 2009
• Table 23 – LLU, shared access price - connection, monthly rental – 2005 - 2008
• Table 24 – Access lines, LLU and bitstream (regulator data) – 2006 - 2009
• Table 25 – Fixed numbers ported – 2003 - 2007
• Table 26 – Fixed numbers ported (regulator data) – 2006 - 2008
• Table 27 – Indirect connections – 2006 - 2008
• Table 28 – Annual change in carrier preselection usage – 2002 - 2008
• Table 29 – CPS as % total subscriptions (excluding cable) – 2000 - 2008
• Table 30 – Fixed-line revenue (outbound) – 2004 - 2008
• Table 31 – Fixed-telephony revenue by calls and services – 2004 - 2008
• Table 32 – France Telecom customers by sector (France) – 2006 - 2009
• Table 33 – France Telecom PSTN lines – 2007 - 2009
• Table 34 – France Telecom financial data – 2007 - 2009
• Table 35 – France Telecom (France) financial data – 2007 - 2009
• Table 36 – France Telecom fixed-line, LLU, DSL subscribers – 2005 - 2009
• Table 37 – SFR subscribers - September 2008
• Table 38 – SFR financial data - 2005 - 2009
• Table 39 – neuf Cegetel financial data (historic) – 2006 - 2007
• Table 40 – neuf Cegetel subscribers (historic) – 2006 - 2008
• Table 41 – Free financial data and annual change – 2006 - 2009
• Table 42 – Free DSL, LLU subscribers – 2005 - 2009
• Table 43 – France Telecom wholesale DSL, naked ADSL, WLR – 2006 - 2009

• Exhibit 1 – Graph showing telecom investment by sector – 1998 - 2008
• Exhibit 2 – Graph showing telephony and Internet service revenue by type – 1998 - 2008
• Exhibit 3 – Chart showing telecom service end-user revenue by type – 2008
• Exhibit 4 – EU – The New Regulatory Framework (NRF)
• Exhibit 5 – Access and the local loop
• Exhibit 6 – Graph showing access lines by type – 2002 - 2008
• Exhibit 7 – Graph of CPS lines – 2000 - 2008
• Exhibit 8 – Graph of subscriptions to fixed telephony services by type – 1998 - 2008
• Exhibit 9 – Graph of proportion fixed-telephony revenue by calls and access – 1998 - 2008
• Exhibit 10 – Graph of fixed-telephony call volumes; PSTN and IP – 1998 - 2008