Kosc was unsuccessful against Altice and contested the decision taken by the Competition Authority. Indeed, seized on the occasion of the sale of Completel's copper network, the competition police last week issued its verdict: "there is nothing to define that Altice has committed a fault with regard to its obligations".

This is a major blow for the wholesale provider of telecom services to operators in the enterprise market, which has been denouncing SFR's parent company's late deliveries for months. This decision is all the more difficult to accept as its financial equation has become significantly more complicated.

But the operator does not intend to stop there since he "rejects", in a press release, the verdict of the Competition Authority and announces that he will bring the case before the Conseil d'État. A referral "motivated by the numerous irregularities that have marked the follow-up of the case by the Competition Authority, including the unexplained duration of its investigation in a context of urgency and the probable violation of its secrecy".

In addition, the company believes that the abandonment of Banque des Territoires (Caisse des Dépôts group), one of its main supporters, can only be explained by an understanding of the result favourable to Altice - SFR upstream.

Kosc warns against a prospect of consolidation that it now considers itself the "privileged target of a hostile acquisition" in view of its financial fragility. An operation that would "de facto close the business telecommunications market to the detriment not only of the ecosystem of hundreds of digital business service operators but also of the beginning of catching up on the digitalisation backlog of French SMEs and VSEs", warns the operator.

 Read the article

Source : DegroupNews

In its newsletter on Monday, the Arcep college published an editorial to review the implications of a recent picket by the incumbent operator. Indeed, at the end of the summer, Orange submitted a Priority Question of Constitutionality (QPC) to the Conseil d'Etat in order to challenge the telecoms regulator's power to impose sanctions. But according to the college, Orange "[challenges] the pragmatic spirit of French-style regulation". With this initiative, the incumbent operator "does not attack the Arcep so much but attacks the French regulatory model more broadly", says Sébastien Soriano, President of the Arcep.

The sanctioning power of the Arcep is vital for the proper functioning of the current regulation, the college stresses in its editorial. In particular, it would not be possible to benefit from "the commitments that operators can make on competitive or territorial coverage issues", argues the telecoms police officer. "Without control and sanctions, these commitments would only be paper," he insists.

Very upset by the initiative of the incumbent operator, Sébastien Soriano said "I am not sure that Orange has measured all the consequences". The President of Arcep says that if his power of sanction were to disappear, then France would have to choose another regulatory model. Wishing to take advantage of the "synergy between infrastructures and services", it decided to leave the incumbent operator in charge of its network for its deployments.

Sébastien Soriano explains "We felt that Orange, because of its need to win back customers in the fixed Internet, had an incentive to invest in fibre", seeing it as a "positive market dynamic. But the counterpart of this choice is that the regulator must check on a daily basis that Orange is not taking advantage of this situation by giving itself an advantage on the retail market. This is called non-discrimination. To ensure this, regular monitoring and sanction procedures are required. Without them, we would potentially be forced to choose much more radical regulatory approaches..."

And ends by correcting: "It's not a threat, it's factual".

 Read the article

Source : La Tribune

The telecoms police officer has just sent an early formal notice to Orange, SFR, Bouygues Telecom and Iliad-Free regarding the "New Mobile Deal". Indeed, Arcep considers that the commitments made by operators under this agreement, dating from January 2018, are not progressing fast enough.

At the time, the State agreed to renew part of the frequencies granted to operators for ten years and free of charge. A "gift" with a counterpart, however: the operators had undertaken to cover the territory more, particularly in the famous "white areas".

By the end of 2020, they must have converted all their existing 2G and 3G sites to 4G and improve mobile coverage on transport routes (from 2018) and inside buildings (from 2019).

But a year and a half after the signing, the regulator would find that progress was insufficient. "The regulator has no confidence in the operators, he believes that this case is dragging on," explains a source familiar with the case.

If the targets were not met by the 2020 deadline, early warning would make it possible to initiate sanctions more quickly without wasting time.

Aware that operators have always had difficulty meeting their commitments, the government has organised progress reports on the progress of the work. This was obviously not enough.

However, in June 2018, the government published the first 485 sites on which operators had to install their 4G antennas. For its part, the Arcep had launched its quarterly dashboard. But several observers had already warned of the magnitude of the task. "The deadlines were super-short. We could legitimately be concerned," recalls one participant today.

Operators, on the other hand, deny any delay. "Operators are deploying on schedule. ...] We are on the ground every day to solve administrative and technical challenges with the support of communities and government services. Arcep is welcome in the territories and will thus become even more aware of the collective success underway to finally solve the problem of white areas," said Arthur Dreyfuss, President of the French Telecommunications Federation. Summer is therefore likely to be turbulent.

 Read the article

Source : Les Echos

The AOTA - Association of Alternative Telecommunications Operators - has just referred the matter to the Arcep to request the opening of Orange's fibre network. Indeed, the 47 members of the association complain that they do not have sufficient access to it and accuse the incumbent of anti-competitive practices.

Since they cannot build very expensive networks themselves covering the entire country, small operators must first "borrow" Orange and SFR networks. They therefore rent access to the two dominant players in the corporate telecom market and buy voice or data from them at wholesale prices. They then sell them to their own customers.

But here we are, alternative operators feel ousted from the market of companies that have not been able to "connect" enough to the Orange network. With 12.4 million outlets, the incumbent's fibre network is both very large and very capillary. Hanging on to it therefore makes it possible to target SMEs with connectivity needs on several sites or plants spread over the territory. It is precisely these customers who escape the more geographically limited members of the AOTA.

A long-standing problem linked to the lack of fibre regulation for professionals. Indeed, Orange is obliged to offer wholesale offers to small operators wishing to access the copper network (ADSL) but not on fibre. In 2017, Alternative Télécom had already demanded more openness.

However, it is impossible for Orange to open up to competition a network built with billions of investments. Small operators believe that the operator has been favoured by its historical footprint on cable, which it was able to convert very quickly to fibre. Today, Orange controls approximately 70% of the corporate fibre market.

For its part, the French Competition Authority has chosen to regulate this market by creating a third player, Kosc, to "break" the predominance of Orange-SFR. This "wholesale" operator deploys its own fibre network, which it then rents to small AOTA or Alternative Télécom operators. "Kosc is a good complement, but it's one of many solutions. And anyway, the Kosc network does not have the same capillarity as Orange," explains one of these small operators. The ball is now in the Arcep's court.

 Read the article

Source : Les Echos

After a first meeting on January 29th, the second is planned for July 2th at Challes-les-Eaux.

Theme: HSBB in the Alps

Departments concerned: 38; 73; 74 and 01 (South Jura) with a focus on tourist areas (ski resorts, hotels).

Observation:

Broadband needs are exploding with the advent of "Over The Top" (OTT) networks and the strong growth of services such as Amazon Prime Video, Netflix, OCS, MyCanal...
Initial observations between the 2017 and 2018 Christmas holidays show a +60% increase in the throughput consumed in hotels and hotel residences. For these establishments, connections in Mbs will soon no longer be enough and requests in 1, 2, 3 or even 4 Gbs are beginning to arrive.

Work in synergy:

From now on, it is essential for telecom and Internet operators to organise themselves in order to be able to respond effectively to this need, which was yesterday emerging and is now very present.
This is the objective of yALPA! We must encourage the actors of Very High Speed deployment to meet and get to know each other better in order to consider future collaborations rather than planning, each on its own, investments in the same places.
The local DSPs (38, 73 and 74) do part of the work, but simply changing departments is complicated. Let us bet that by exchanging informally, a collective intelligence will make it possible to accelerate the arrival of really Very High Speed offers in the Alps (resorts but also valleys and plains).
It is understood that the results of these initial yALPA discussions will not have immediate effect. However, in the more or less short term, the problems currently encountered in terms of HSBB in tourist areas can be solved.

Morning program (9:00 am - 12:00 pm):

• welcome, coffee, pastries
• round table discussion: presentation of each participant
• Transalpinet presentation (study by Rezopole)
• room for improvement:
  • common carto tool.... Should we start where we wait another 10 years?
  • new backbone offers from external operators
  • territories without POPs

Registrations:

from Samuel Triolet (director of Rezopole) : striolet (from) rezopole.net

Practical informations:

See you on July 2nd at 9:00 am at Hub des Alpes (salle Altitude 193) - 37 avenue des Massettes, 73190 Challes-les-Eaux.

After Altice at the end of November, it is Cube Infrastructure's turn to put its shares up for sale according to several sources. Covage's 50% shareholder paid 66 million euros in 2012 to buy back its shares from Vinci. However, Morgan Stanley Bank was mandated to find a buyer on the basis of a valuation of €1 billion.

The group's EBITDA would now reach €35 million for a turnover of around €100 million. "These ratios are not relevant. We are talking about an activity in full explosion with a very low maturity. In reality, the main driver is rarity," points out a good connoisseur of the file.
Charged by several departments with deploying optical fibre, Covage has already connected 630,000 of the planned 2.2 million households. The company still hopes to win a few more contracts to reach 3 million catches, which would represent just under 10% of French households.
When all the cables are pulled, Covage will be one of the few players to have such a digital infrastructure in a significant portion of the country. Indeed, once this task is completed, operators will have to pay a fee to use their networks.

€1.8 billion to acquire half of the optical lines that SFR must deploy outside major cities. But this deal is criticized in the industry because many believe that the infrastructure has been oversold. Indeed, the line rental prices highlighted could not be applied.

On paper, there are many candidates for the acquisition of Covage: investment funds, other RIP players, in particular Altitude or major operators...

 Read the article

Source : Les Echos.fr

Theme: HSBB in the Alps

Departments concerned: 38; 73; 74 and 01 (South Jura) with a focus on tourist areas (ski resorts, hotels).

Observation:

Broadband needs are exploding with the advent of "Over The Top" (OTT) networks and the strong growth of services such as Amazon Prime Video, Netflix, OCS, MyCanal...
Initial observations between the 2017 and 2018 Christmas holidays show a +60% increase in the throughput consumed in hotels and hotel residences. For these establishments, connections in Mbs will soon no longer be enough and requests in 1, 2, 3 or even 4 Gbs are beginning to arrive.

Work in synergy:

From now on, it is essential for telecom and Internet operators to organise themselves in order to be able to respond effectively to this need, which was yesterday emerging and is now very present.
This is the objective of yALPA! We must encourage the actors of Very High Speed deployment to meet and get to know each other better in order to consider future collaborations rather than planning, each on its own, investments in the same places.
The local DSPs (38, 73 and 74) do part of the work, but simply changing departments is complicated. Let us bet that by exchanging informally, a collective intelligence will make it possible to accelerate the arrival of really Very High Speed offers in the Alps (resorts but also valleys and plains).
It is understood that the results of these initial yALPA discussions will not have immediate effect. However, in the more or less short term, the problems currently encountered in terms of HSBB in tourist areas can be solved.

Registrations:

from Samuel Triolet (director of Rezopole) : striolet (from) rezopole.net

Calendar :

01/29/2019 : episode 001 at 9:00 am at the Isere County Council - 7 rue Fantin Latour, CS 41096, 38022 Grenoble cedex 1..

Morning program (9:00 am - 12:00 pm):

• welcome, coffee, pastries
• round table discussion: presentation of each participant
• brainstorming: ideas proposed and debriefed
• carto workshop: "bring your kmz!!!!" / "bring your own shape!!!!!"
• first conclusions and draft of an action plan; list of requests to be made to the Region, to the CSPs where
• applicable, cooperation commitments between operators present...

07/02/2019 : episode 002 at 9:00 am at Hub des Alpes (salle Altitude 193) - 37 avenue des Massettes, 73190 Challes-les-Eaux.

Morning program (9:00 am - 12:00 pm):

• welcome, coffee, pastries
• round table discussion: presentation of each participant
• Transalpinet presentation (study by Rezopole)
• room for improvement:
  • common carto tool.... Should we start where we wait another 10 years?
  • new backbone offers from external operators
  • territories without POPs

Announced on January 18th by Free's parent company, the acquisition of 75% of the capital of the French company Jaguar Network will enable the operator to strengthen its offers on the B2B market. These shares, previously held by the Naxicap investment fund, were sold for just under €100 million.

"This transaction is an important step for Iliad in its development strategy to address the corporate market by leveraging the very strong expertise and complementarities between the two groups and by partnering with a recognized entrepreneur," said Free's management after the acquisition.

This takeover should enable Iliad to develop its national network of data centers in order to increase its capacity to provide technical support to companies. However, this operation should not change the organization chart of the operator and host Cloud Jaguar Network since the company remains managed by its founder, Kevin Polizzi, who remains a shareholder with 25% of the capital.

 Read the article

Source : ZDNet

Created under the protection of the State following the break-up of the ORTF, the group with 14,000 pylons and flat roofs decided to sell its shares in the telecoms equipment provider. To this end, the group's current shareholders - Brookfield, APG, PSP, Arcus and Crédit Agricole Assurances - have mandated Morgan Stanley and BNP Paribas banks. If in 2014, TDF had been sold for approximately €370 million, its results having stabilised since then, the transaction would now exceed €3.5 billion.

With 13,900 sites, TDF infrastructure funds are keen on this type of long-term asset. Indeed, such opportunities are rather rare " It is an asset for infrastructure funds, family offices and pension funds. Manufacturers in the sector have few synergies to generate from a possible merger. " says one source.

After difficulties in 2008 following the financial crisis, the group has strengthened its financial structure with debt leverage now below 4 times EBITDA. Especially since the most important deadlines are 2022 and 2026.

At the end of 2018, TDF continued its strategy of refocusing with the sale of Médiamobile and by accelerating in optical fibre. The company was entrusted with the installation of several tens of thousands of sockets by the territories. In addition, several hundred new pylons on transport routes and in rural areas were built last year.

 Read the article

Source : Les Echos.fr

AnnecIX welcomes today its 1st member! D-LAKE is a network operator and host of critical data founded by 4 telecom veterans. D-LAKE is above all an infrastructure provider in indirect sales and white label and thus allows resellers, integrators and ESNs to offer a portfolio of Telecom network and hosting services with high added value. The company is located in several Datacenters in the Rhône-Alpes region and is also able to deliver customers anywhere in Europe. D-LAKE offers VPN-MPLS, SD-WAN, LAN 2 LAN, IaaS Premium, Private Cloud, Secure Transit services.


"Due to its local dimension, AnnecIX perfectly meets D-LAKE's desire to provide better network connectivity in Haute Savoie. Connectivity to the various content providers connected to Rezopole's various IXPs will improve access latency to these sites for D-LAKE customers."

ASN: AS49028

Since November 21st, Rezopole has had a new member connected to the GrenoblIX infrastructure.

TOTAL CLOUD, located in Grenoble, has its own third-party level III data centers, all located near the company's headquarters.

This new member offers multiple web hosting solutions, collaborative storage tools, synchronization and supervision. And it is also a secure room for housing your IT solutions. TOTAL CLOUD - IP and mobile telephone operator for professionals and individuals - provides services for your fibre, Dark, ADSL and SDSL connections.

TOTAL CLOUD is present in GrenoblIX 1.

ASN : AS210197

Supports a digital transformation of organizations via the migration of their Information System towards connected services, developing with them customised solutions and providing resources on demand in the IT, IoT and Telecom sector. Agora Calycé is an alternative to the large groups by providing a better level of proximity service.

Agora Calycé is present at the LyonIX 2D rack.

ASN : AS47833

Learn more

Find more details here: Agora Calycé