French telecom market moves into new phase

France's telecom market has been a showcase for broadband competition, with France Telecom, Iliad, Neuf Cegetel and Numericable aggressivly deploying new technology and recruiting customers. The market also recently has been reshaped by mobile carrier SFR's acquisition of Neuf Cegetel, and Iliad's plan to buy Telecom Italia's Alice French unit. With France Telecom also owning Orange and operating the Unik fixed-mobile converged service, the next phase of competition in the French market may be all about wireless and FMC.

Iliad is lacking a strong wireless presence thus far, but that could change soon if the company gets a good chunk of available 3G spectrum from French regulator Arcep.

For more:
- see this report at The Wall Street Journal

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