Orange confirmed it will not appeal the ruling of French regulators
French competition regulators fined local operator Orange 350 million euros ($380 million) for abuse of its market dominance as France’s former national telecom monopoly.
The regulator said in its resolution Orange had offered tariff discount schemes since 2002 that could have discouraged its corporate customers from moving their businesses to another telecom company such as Bouygues and SFR-Numericable. These rival operators are currently using Orange’s fixed and mobile infrastructure to provide services to corporate customers.
The fine is the highest ever imposed to a single company in France since the competition regulator was created.
According to local press reports, the French operator will not appeal the resolution. Also, the telco affirmed the fine will have no impact in the company’s financial results.
“Orange has decided not to contest or appeal against the decision of the Competition Authority on this matter that relates exclusively to the potential rather than actual impact on the market of the relevant practices”, the company said.
The telco also said it will change its practices following the ruling.
Orange’s revenues in the French market totaled 4.79 billion euros in the quarter. Total capital expenses for Q3 amounted to 1.56 billion euros, which accounted for 15.2% of revenues.
Orange ended the third quarter of 2015 with 6.6 million LTE subscribers, posting 1 million net additions during the period, the company said in its earnings statement.
The company’s LTE network reached 77% of the French population by the end of the period, while Orange’s LTE-Advanced network is now deployed on half of the LTE sites in France’s 14 largest cities. The LTE service is provided through spectrum in the 800 MHz and 2.6 GHz bands.
Vodafone Germany’s 200 Mbps cable broadband reaches 8 million homes
Vodafone Germany said it now covers 8 million homes with its 200 megabits-per-second cable broadband service, which was commercially launched in December 2014. The telecom services provider said nearly 14.6 million homes in Germany are able to access speeds of up to 100 Mbps via its cable infrastructure.
The German operator said it wants to make its 200 Mbps service available to more than 10 million households across the country by early 2016. Vodafone Germany plans to launch a 500 Mbps cable broadband service in select locations across Germany in the future.
