MuniWireless

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…

ARCEP, the French regulator, recently published on its website a set of documents and information about “sharing fiber to the home”. After about 18 months of investigation, trials, technical discussions and assessments, ARCEP concluded that one of the critical conditions for rapid deployment of fiber networks is a set of guidelines for operators, installers, owners and users to share the fiber local loop.

“To deploy a new local loop is an technical, economical and a competitive challenge for France,“ an ARCEP…

Orange and SFR, the two major broadband operators in France agreed to share the fiber optic lines going into apartment and office buildings. In a letter of intent signed by the operators, they stated that the “co-owner associations” of a multi-tenant building or their representatives would be able to choose the operator to install the fiber in the building. The installer would open the fiber to other operators requesting the access to the building, but they would have to pay…

Hôtel de Roquelaure, on Boulevard St. Germain in Paris, is an elegant 18th century residence close to the Musée d’Orsay, an unlikely location to celebrate a 21st century achievement: the establishment of near 100% cellular coverage in France. But perhaps that is not so surprising given that it is the headquarters of the French Ministry for Town and Country Planning, headed by Hubert Falco, a member of the Sarkozy government. It was here that the three largest French cellular operators…

Last week, three European incumbents - Orange, British Telecom and Telefonica - released their mid-year results, delivering some news to reassure investors already reeling from the economic downturn.  The numbers show that the telecom market is moving at its usual steady pace, as if nothing adverse were happening in the financial markets. In addition to releasing quarterly results, the carriers made interesting remarks on the dynamic of the European telecom market. Europe is a market which started its transition from…

We reported in August that hackers have liberated the iPhone from carrier jail, allowing people to use it with any cellular operator’s service, a move that Apple does not condone. You are supposed to use the iPhone together with Cingular’s service in the US: “what Steve Jobs hath joned together, let no man put asunder.” French law, however, does not approve of carrier-phone shotgun marriages. So Orange, the French operator, is required to sell the iPhone in France unlocked, if…