PARIS: French cable operator Numericable, France’s rivalry overseer said it had given its go-ahead to Numericable’s purchase of Virgin Mobile France.
Numericable’s parent is Luxembourg-based Altice, This is also in the process of buying number 2 mobile operator SFR (French radiotelephone company), agreed in June to buy Virgin Mobile France from owners Britain’s Carphone Warehouse and entrepreneur Richard Branson’s Virgin Group for an enterprise value of 325 million Euros. Virgin Mobile rented capacity on the network of SFR so as to serve its customers as an MVNO.
Last month France’s rivalry authority had given its approval to the Numericable-SFR deal on condition that Numericable divests certain assets and makes its cable network available to its competitors on a rental basis.
The Virgin deal as a condition of approval of the rivalry Authority repeated on Thursday that Numericable would allow rivals to rent capacity on its broadband lines so they can match all-included bundles of mobile and internet.
