The mobile operators market - France

The telephony sector is now almost exclusively mobile: the residential telephony segment has been in a slow decline for many years. The telephony sector is one of the most important sectors in the world key sectors of the French economy with a certain dynamism and a very high penetration rate within households. In 2015, nearly 57.5 million French people had a package and more than 70 million Sim cards were in circulation in France. The sector is focused with very large players historically present in the sector such as Orange, Bouygues or SFR. The barriers to entry are consistent with the need for antennas that can be owned or not depending on the models and possibly purchases of communication minutes.... Thus, the new players are essentially the result of the strategic diversification of large conglomerates such as Virgin, for example. The sector was completely disrupted by the arrival of Free Mobile that challenged the prices practiced in the market. These tariffs, formerly kept high, have literally collapsed. Similarly, there has been a paradigm shift from a high level of forced customer loyalty to a contract without commitment. The telephone sector is poorly regulated in France. This is a sector where volume must be created to be profitable, which is why we are witnessing a gradual concentration of the sector with major financial operations.