MuniWireless

At a recent conference on the 2008 financial results of Altitude Telecom, CEO Jean Paul Rivière expressed confidence about Altitude’s WiMAX business im France. Most of Altitude’s revenues come from large enterprises. The company sells VPN IP MPSL, which means migration to an all-IP network for voice and high speed data access using end-to-end high speed Ethernet networks. Rivière says: “We help enterprises migrate their activities to full IP networks, and the demand is booming because our services are more…

If, like me, you hate long-term mobile phone subscriptions, you will be pleased to hear that a French mobile operator, SFR (a subsidiary of Vivendi), is allowing customers to purchase data plans on a prepaid basis. If you live in France, you do not have to sign up for one- or two-year contracts.

SFR has begun offering a subscription-free pack with a 3G+ USB key and a SimCard for €69 with no subscription obligation (SFR will reimburse €30 after a certain…

With the prospect of two new appointees to ARCEP (the French regulator) to replace Paul Champsaur and Gabrielle Gauthey, both of whom were instrumental in bringing more competition into the French telecommunications market, a war of words has erupted between ARCEP and the French operators, notably, France Telecom.

During the tenure of Paul Champsaur, who has been president of ARCEP for the last six years and is retiring at the end of the year, France has seen a significant increase in…

ARCEP, the French telecom regulator, has published the latest statistics on high-speed Internet access in France. At the end of Q3 2008, there 17.1 million high-speed Internet subscribers, and of that number 16.3 million are DSL subscribers.

Year-to-year growth is 16% (2.3 million new subscribers were added). At the end of Q2 2008, ARCEP’s figures showed year-to-year growth to be 18%. Unbundling of copper lines has now passed the 6 million mark in France with more than 4.5 million lines fully…

France Télécom has released its financial results for the third quarter of 2008 and, unlike most companies, it believes that the financial crisis has had almost no effect of the crisis on its business. In fact, it is sticking to its predictions until the end of the year.  Gervais Pelissier, CFO of France Télécom said in a conference call:

“We see no sign of slowdown in our activities related to the economic and financial crisis. Our revenue growth  in the third…

Two years ago, France granted 44 regional WiMAX licenses in the 3.5 GHz spectrum to operators and local governments, taking in €126 million in one of the most anticipated WiMAX auctions in Europe. This past summer, ARCEP, the French regulator conducted a survey to assess the speed of WiMAX deployments and determine whether WiMAX license holders had met the 30 June 2008 deadline. The findings are grim.

According to the terms of the WiMAX licenses,…