A memorandum of understanding has already been signed between Free and Orange. The duo wants to share their network in rural areas in order to reduce costs in areas with low population density and therefore not very profitable.
Orange and Free, on the way to a new idyll. An agreement to share the network of the two operators in rural areas is currently being studied by Arcep, it is in reality, according to La Tribune, a “passive mutualisation agreement”. More specifically, L’ex-trublion and ex-France Télécom want to share pylons and their operating costs by installing their own antennas. The primary target of this partnership, which has not yet been concluded, is the priority deployment area (ZDP), namely where mobile coverage is deemed to be poor or even non-existent. According to the regulator, 18% of the population and 63% of the territory are affected.
Arcep pushes Orange and Free to share their networks in priority deployment areas
Within the framework of the New Deal, i.e. the agreement found in January 2018 between the State and the operators, Orange, Free, SFR and Bouygues are obliged to consult their rivals and probe their interest around mutualisation when they plan to set up in ZDP. Enough to irritate Orange, whose differentiation strategy could then be undermined. Finally, Arcep calmed the game by proposing to the players to lift this obligation in the event that an operator made a passive pooling offer in this area to a competitor.
A way for Arcep to push Orange to get closer to Free, writes the daily. The latest statements from Sébastien Soriano, president of the regulator, seem to confirm this: “There is a real asymmetry between Bouygues and SFR on the one hand who have part of their network in common and Free which deploys it alone”, he said yesterday in the lines of Figaro. This idyll between the operator of Xavier Niel and Stéphane Richard is also a way of rebalancing the French landscape. It could also allow them to reduce costs in these less dense and less profitable areas. Without forgetting that the deployment of 5G will require a colossal investment. For two, it’s easier.
Last March, Orange and Free signed a mutualisation agreement protocol, we learned. The two operators subsequently asked Arcep to bypass the prior consultation obligation. Free’s request diverges a bit since it concerns a leverage only for sites that would be built with Orange.
Still according to La Tribune, the regulator has launched a public consultation on a possible overpressure of the obligation for all operators. A decision is expected soon.
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