Bouygues Telecom Numericable attack to justice – Le Figaro

The Bouygues phone subsidiary claims 53 million euros to the group of Patrick Drahi.

The failed attempt Numericable, SFR, Bouygues Telecom to buy the end of June does not pass. The latter is prepared to make every effort to demonstrate that it can exist without being backed by another operator. The latest attack is assigning Numericable in Paris Commercial Court for “breach of contract”, as revealed by L’Express. Contacted, Bouygues Telecom and SFR, Numericable did not wish to respond.

The two operators are bound by a contract which dates from 2009 and allows Bouygues Telecom to market deals on the fiber network Numericable . More than 400,000 customers benefit from this service, according to our information. But things are not so simple. For several months, Bouygues Telecom suspects his competitor and service provider not to make every effort to honor his contract, and soon to enable customer lines. However, Bouygues Telecom has decided to establish itself in the fixed. For now, it remains far behind its competitors, with 2.5 million subscribers in the fixed, against 6 million approximately for Free and Numericable, SFR and Orange 10.4 million. Bouygues Telecom seeks to expand its own network. Part of deployment operations nevertheless returns to Numericable, SFR, which again, would drag the tab.

The decision of the Competition Authority of July 30 would have been a catalyst. As part of the commitments made by Numericable on redemption of SFR, Numericable must propose reference offers to its competitors who wish to rent its cable network. These could be deployed their own offers. The authority has validated the rates Numericable has before it. These rates would be less attractive than those currently enjoyed by Bouygues Telecom. What appears at first glance like good news for Bouygues Telecom is not one. If the subsidiary of Bouygues was counting on new wholesale rates on the cable to renegotiate his contract, it is missed.

The relationship between Bouygues Telecom and SFR, Numericable are becoming more complex. Both are competitors, the second wants to buy the first, and they are condemned to work together as they have signed a contract for a pooling of their mobile network.