Free Mobile competitors could easily anticipate

The Chairman of Arcep, auditioned by a Commission of the National Assembly, returned to the entry of Free Mobile telecoms market.

Free Mobile competitors have, in the past months, regularly turned to - regulator Arcep for telecoms - to complain about the conditions enjoyed by the new entrant on the French market of mobile telephony. Arcep which, meanwhile, was very happy to see more competition to interfere in the market, since it benefits directly to the Subscriber. Accused of not sufficiently well assessed the impact of the arrival of a fourth operator on the market, Arcep held to be explained once again by the voice of its president Jean-Ludovic Silicani, at a hearing before the Commission of Economic Affairs of the National Assembly.

Jean-Ludovic Silicani began by recalling an indisputable fact: "everywhere in Europe, we find four fixed/mobile operators." All studies show that the price of the mobile France, was higher than elsewhere. "And the choice of the place to a new entrant was made as early as 2000, when the decision on the distribution of 3 G frequencies".

From there, according to him, nobody can say taking courses. The president of Arcep also does not hesitate to explain that those who complain today, could handle the situation differently. "If they had thought in 2006/2008 to spend a full-MVNO with Free agreement, the issue would not have arisen and they would not be in this situation, perhaps Free have not deployed fourth mobile network." "It is a choice on their part: they did everything to block the development of the full MVNO in France while they were abroad the increasing" he says.

As the price of the licence paid by Free Mobile, competitors believe bradee, yet Jean-Ludovic Silicani presents things flat: "If the conditions were so favourable, if the price was so low, other operators have jumped at the opportunity to be a candidate." "However, despite our efforts, a single operator competed". The price paid for the license is logical, because Free Mobile has a lower volume of frequencies. Not to mention that the new operator arrived very late on its competitors.

Finally, the last difficult question concerns the consequences of the arrival of Free Mobile employment, since its competitors dismiss to restore their margins, and relocate more: "I remember that the sector is facing a trend decline in its numbers, so is somewhat easy to do on the back of Free (...)" For direct employment we are to 1 600 posts deleted via voluntary departures. For indirect jobs, depends on the strategies of operators but 1,500 jobs could be affected (...) Meanwhile, Free have recently created 2,000 jobs including via the launch of two centres of calls in the Paris region. "In all we have 3,000 in losses and 2,000 in gains so the balance is negative 1 000 jobs".