SFR caught up with its delay in the 4G – Echoes

SFR could collect, in 2017, the fruits of our efforts these last few months. The operator at the red square, which has seen its network deteriorate in recent years by lack of investment, has made, since mid-2015, double duty for the back to level. And a little more than two years after its purchase by Patrick Drahi, SFR believes they have caught up its delay. “We have almost completed the renovation of the network. We may be late, but we are proving today that we have the ability to deploy massively, ” said Michel Paulin, ceo of SFR on Monday, in front of the press.

In fact, the investments in the network have been clearly identified, up to the last year more than 2 billion. Of course, the former shareholder of SFR, Vivendi, had not invested enough, and when he recovered the baby, Patrick Drahi has found a network gradient. But it does not have itself revived the investment after all : it initially took six months to review the industrial tool. The machine is returned to the bottom in 2016, to such a point that SFR has beaten records of deployments, particularly in the 4G. And that in the delay until recently, SFR now has overcome the world. “By the end of next year, we aim to be higher than the number one [Orange] 4G, ” said and Patrick Drahi, mid-2016, before the students of Polytechnic. “The goal is attainable ” has simply confirmed Michel Paulin Monday, announcing 90 % of the population covered by 4G by the end of 2017, and then 99 % by the end of 2018, compared to 81 % today. Knowing that Orange tip to 88 %.

The deployment of the fiber to advance also, even if the goals have been revised slightly downwards : SFR expects to reach 11 million taken in the very high-speed fixed by the end of the year, against 12 million announced so far. Especially, the operator would want to review the sharing of the deployment in areas of moderately dense set (by Vivendi, the former shareholder of SFR) with Orange : 80 % Orange and 20 % for SFR. It calls for a “rebalancing ” for the past two years. Arcep argues in its favor. “If there is no new share, the coverage objective fibre of the area moderately dense expected in 2020 will not be required, has warned Michel Paulin, saying that Orange could not do his 80 % all alone by then.

For SFR, the improvement of its network is a crucial issue, so that the operator has lost 2.5 million customers in a little over two years, of which the vast majority in the mobile. “Our clients are always far too many of us leave it for another operator “, lamented Michel Paulin during his greeting to the employees of SFR in early January. After you have slowed the loss of subscribers last year, SFR expects a stabilisation this year and expects to return in 2018. If the improvement of the operator’s network is undeniable in throughput and latency (response time) in the telecom sector, however, it is still a long time for customers to perceive the change.

F. Sc