France: To Cope with Fierce Competition, Converged Telecom Operators Focus on Bundling

Summary 'France: To Cope with Fierce Competition, Converged Telecom Operators Focus on Bundling,' a new Country Intelligence Report by Pyramid Research, offers a precise, incisive profile of the French mobile and fixed telecommunications markets and pay-TV markets based on comprehensive proprietary data and insights from our research in the country. Published annually, this presentation-quality, executive-level report provides detailed analysis of the near-term opportunities, competitive dynamics and evolution of demand by service type and technology/platform across the fixed telephony, broadband, mobile and pay-TV sectors, in addition to a review of key regulatory trends. Key Findings - The mobile data segment, fuelled by rapid adoption of 4G services, is the most important driver for growth in the French telecom market. This mobile data growth is helping operators to counter competitive pressures, which have been especially strong since Free entered the market in 2012. - To respond to Free, the established converged operators, Orange, SFR and Bouygues, are introducing multiplay bundles that include mobile services and offering additional value-added-services, such as Web hosting, personal and business cloud applications, email and IPTV to build on access revenue. - The fixed-mobile revenue split will remain substantially unchanged from 2013 to 2018. While in most Western European countries the mobile sector will expand, in France the growth of the mobile data segment will be offset by a strong contraction in mobile voice revenue, as we expect price competition to remain robust over the forecast period. - Following the sale by Vivendi of SFR to Altice/Numericable, we do not expect further MandA activity in the short term. However, the case for a merger between Bouygues and Free is strong, and a deal could happen. Apart from the four MNOs, consolidation is ongoing in the MVNO market. Synopsis This report provides an executive-level overview of the telecommunications market in France today, with detailed forecasts of key indicators up to 2018. It delivers deep quantitative and qualitative insight into France's telecom market, analyzing key trends, evaluating near-term opportunities and assessing risk factors, based on proprietary data from Pyramid Research's databases. It provides in-depth analysis of the following: - France in a regional context: a review of market size and trends compared with those of other countries in the region. - Economic, demographic and political context in France. - The regulatory environment and trends: a review of the regulatory setting and agenda for the next 18-24 months as well as relevant developments pertaining to spectrum licensing, national broadband plans, number portability and more. - A demand profile: analysis as well as forecasts and historical figures of service revenue from fixed telephony (including VoIP), broadband, mobile voice and data, and pay-TV markets. - Service evolution: a look at the change in the breakdown of overall revenue by fixed, pay-TV and mobile sectors as well as by voice, data and video between the current year and the end of the forecast period. - The competitive landscape: an examination of key trends in competition and service providers' performance, revenue market shares and expected moves over the next 18-24 months. - An in-depth sector analysis of fixed telephony and broadband services, mobile voice and data services, and pay-TV services; a quantitative analysis of service adoption trends by technology/platform as well as operator, average revenue per line/subscription and service revenue through the end of the forecast period. - Main opportunities: this section details the near-term opportunities for operators, vendors and investors in the telecommunications and pay-TV markets in France. Reasons To Buy - This Country Intelligence Report helps executives build proactive, profitable growth strategies by offering comprehensive, relevant analysis of the French communications market, the second largest in Western Europe. The analysis is based on insights directly from the local market players. - The report offers a wealth of data on the telecom and pay-TV markets in France, with the mobile and fixed segments examined in detail. - The competitive landscape and the major players are given extra attention, enabling local players or prospective market entrants to gain the insight they need. - The broad but detailed perspective will help operators, equipment vendors and other telecom industry players to succeed in the challenging telecommunications market in France. - The report is designed for an executive-level audience, boasting presentation quality that allows it to be turned into presentable material immediately. - The report concludes with an exploration of the opportunities available in the French market to operators, vendors and investors.