PARIS, Dec 13 (Reuters) - Telecoms and cable company Altice has dropped its bid to roll out its own costly broadband fibre technology across France by 2025, a senior executive said, to help rein in investment costs in response to plunge in its shareprice.
The group controlled by Franco-Israeli tycoon Patrick Drahi is battling to regain investors' confidence after failing to stem falls in sales and subscribers in France, its number one market.
Altice shares have slumped 41 percent since it reported in its last quarterly results in November that its French business had haemorraged broadband customers and debt had reached 49.6 billion euros, prompting the ouster of the group's chief executive.
"With Patrick Drahi... we've recently decided to go for a more traditional model... and a collaboration with local authorities," Alain Weill, head of Altice's French unit SFR Group, told French lawmakers.
He said local authorities had not supported the company's plan to lay its own fibre technology.
SFR, France's second biggest telecom operator after Orange , stunned government and local officials in July by announcing its intention to roll out a fibre optic network across France on its own.
The announcement meant that it was effectively breaking away from the government's initial plan that included 13-14 billion euros of investments by the state and local authorities to cover rural areas.
France, which is at the bottom of EU rankings for ultra-fast fibre optic broadband coverage, sees 2025 as a new goal for rolling out the technology across the country through a complex mix of public and private funding, in particular in the most rural areas.
President Emmanuel Macron has made universal access to fast broadband a key priority to stimulate the economy.
In 2013, the former government announced a 20 billion-euro ($24 billion) plan to bring high-speed broadband service to every household and business by 2022, using several different technologies (fibre optic, copper network, coaxial cable, wireless technology).
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8 replies (most recent on top)
Here u go corporate guy, that posted replies below. rub this basic research on ur hairless chest....
Net Neutrality for Dummies. Network Neutrality is usually defined as the principle that internet service providers (ISPs) should treat all online content equally without blocking or slowing down (throttle) specific websites on purpose or allowing companies to "pay for preferential treatment." I hope it doesn't get repealed.
And big corporations already pay us and other isps for connections with no traffic. That's what lightpath is for. Look up and see how much those companies pay compared to a regular account
That's not even what net neutrality is. Do some basic research. It's not so certain people receive faster internet, it's so companies can't pay isps to have their traffic given to us faster than other companies.
Yup frenchie has no more credit line, and investors aren't beat for his shananagins, doors are closing only option he has if government approves net neutrality. So isp providers like frenchie can get paid from big corporations to utilize internet with no traffic (meaning having ezpass and having the fast lane to themselves while normal consumers like us suffer with traffic from heavy utilization).
Probably ran out of zip ties
Shocker!
Unreal.... it saddens me that there will be a lot of disappointing techs that believed in there lies.
LMAO