Telecoms: Regulator blows hot and cold on sector consolidation

This is ultimately false good news for operators who would like to consolidate the French telecoms market. At a press conference in Paris, the Regulatory Authority for Electronic Communications, Posts and Press Distribution (ARCEP), the sector regulator, finally made a statement on Friday, May 23, on the prospect of a return to three operators, while the possibility of a deal around SFR is electrifying the market. Laure de La Raudière, the president of the authority, took the opportunity to blow hot and cold on this possibility.

On the one hand, she asserts that Arcep "has no position of principle" on consolidation. "There is no magic number," she added, specifying that she would wait until "a merger project" is officially launched to study it and make a decision. "Today, the market is competitive in France, and we remain committed to this objective," she insisted. Enough, a priori, to satisfy the operators who are thinking of swooping down on SFR, the number two telecoms company behind Orange.

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