However, they had promised to stop ... Orange and Free have indicated that they intend to extend their roaming contract by two years. This agreement allows Free to benefit from the Orange network in 2G / 3G. When the alternative operator's network is saturated, or non-existent in certain areas, its subscribers switch to that of the incumbent operator. The latter is paid for this service. The rent rose to a billion euros at the beginning of Free before falling as the latter deployed its own mobile network throughout the territory.
Friday, April 3, the Telecommunications Authority (Arcep) announced that it " received, on February 24, 2020, an amendment to the roaming contract concluded between Free Mobile and Orange. Signed on February 19, 2020, this endorsement extends the period of termination of the national roaming of Free Mobile on Orange's 2G and 3G networks until December 31, 2022 ”. Free and Orange had however planned to gradually end roaming by reducing speeds until December 31, 2020.
Free puts forward two arguments to justify this extension. On the one hand, he considers that it is " impossible for him to catch up with the standard of market coverage which has clearly increased with the Crozon mutualisation agreement and the New Deal bonds ". Crozon is a network sharing agreement between Bouygues Telecom and SFR covering 57% of the territory, or almost two-thirds of the French population. The New Deal is a contract signed between the State and the operators in January 2019 aimed at improving mobile coverage in white areas. Free, which does not have a 2G license because it had no activity in mobile at the time of their launch, further explains that it “ needs to benefit from 2G coverage in the same way as other operators. mobile networks ”, he refers in particular to the use of 2G by other operators as a fallback technology“ in certain situations, particularly indoors or during peak hours ”.
Dissatisfied competitors
Its competitors do not hide their dissatisfaction. They consider in particular that " the New Deal cannot be used to justify the situation of Free and the provisions of this agreement ". “ Twelve years after having obtained its license, this new contract shows a very sad observation. The 4th operator is not investing enough in its mobile network, contrary to its repeated promises over the past twelve years. It is indeed complicated to be able to invest when you have such a strong dividend policy. It is therefore all the more surprising that the regulator again flies to the rescue of the 4th operator despite this equation: rising dividends and investments not at the promised level. .. ", explains Arthur Dreyfuss, secretary general Altice France - SFR. " Free has no need of this kind of safety net in very dense areas, where it has been actively deploying its network for more than ten years, " adds Didier Casas, managing director of Bouygues Telecom.
Dividend distribution at Free
The subject annoys Free's rivals all the more since Iliad, its parent company, has not given up distributing dividends. On April 17, when its annual results were announced, Iliad specified that its “ Board of Directors will submit to the Ordinary General Meeting of May 20, 2020 a proposal to distribute dividends up to € 2.60 per existing share. . He will be detached from the action on June 24, 2020 ”. Or 153.8 million euros distributed to Iliad shareholders. Xavier, Niel president and founder of the company owns 70%.
For its part, Altice, the parent company of SFR, has announced that it will waive the payment of dividends, as requested by the government to companies that use partial unemployment measures. Bouygues Telecom, which also has recourse to unemployment leave, has decided to suspend the distribution of dividends. The decision is postponed until August, depending on the evolution of the situation.
