French telcos look to ARCEP to regulate Orange quad-play

Competitors to leading French telco France Telecom/Orange may look to the French communications regulator ARCEP’s president Bruno Lasserre to investigate the latter’s quad-play offer, launched in August, rather than lodge a formal complaint themselves, according to a report in financial daily Les Echos.

Regulatory attention may focus on the 24-month length of contracts for the quad-play service. Iliad Telecom plans to come to market with its own quad-play service from 2012 following its acquisition of France’s fourth 3G mobile licence (itself not without controversy), but could struggle if a significant portion of the potential market is tied into long contracts with Orange.

Orange’s single-bill, single contract model has meanwhile met with criticism from SFR, which provides separate bills for its mobile and fixed services.
Orange is offering quad-play including one hour’s worth of calls to mobiles and unlimited fixed-to-mobile calls to four selected numbers, for €57.90.

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