Iliad CEO says French mega data centre project held up by environmental regulations
FRANCE 3 MRT

Iliad CEO says French mega data centre project held up by environmental regulations

Thomas Reynaud, CEO of the Iliad Group, has denounced the impact of administrative formalities on a multi-billion euro data centre project unveiled in late 2025 to meet growing demand for AI applications. Iliad is investing in the facility via data centre venture OpCore, co-owned with InfraVia Capital Partners, on a site that previously housed a coal-fired power station. The project is being held back by a compulsory "four-season" assessment, Reynaud stated in an opinion piece published by Les Echos, descri

French watchdog enforces new measures to block Russian media sites
FRANCE 3 MRT

French watchdog enforces new measures to block Russian media sites

French regulator Arcom has strengthened its crackdown on Russian media entities with a new decision requesting ISPs to block 35 websites linked to outlets under EU sanctions. Alongside ISPs, domain name resolution system providers and search engines must take action to prevent access to the sites. Four streaming platforms featuring content from the targeted outlets are also covered by the decision, with a request to delist the sites.

Orange Business, Tech Mahindra enter talks on 5-year digital transformation drive
FRANCE 2 MRT

Orange Business, Tech Mahindra enter talks on 5-year digital transformation drive

Orange Business and Tech Mahindra have entered into exclusive negotiations to forge a five-year strategic partnership covering multiple areas of collaboration, including go-to-market initiatives, outsourcing and operational processes. For Orange Business, the agreement would provide access to new markets through a go-to-market approach focused on international customers outside France. It would also involve outsourcing to Tech Mahindra a portion of Orange Business' global customer support, quote-to-bill pro

Orange to exhibit connectivity innovation at MWC
FRANCE 26 FEB

Orange to exhibit connectivity innovation at MWC

Orange will be present at this year's Mobile World Congress with a fully redesigned stand, where it will present several demonstrations around the themes of augmented networks and connectivity-enabled applications. The programme aims to showcase how the group's core expertise can underpin new services, in line with the recently unveiled 'Trust the Future' strategic plan. In particular, Orange will highlight the transformation of its networks through a platform-driven approach, supported by softwarisation, a

Bouygues Telecom targets stable EBITDA in 2026 after 1% rise in Q4
FRANCE 26 FEB

Bouygues Telecom targets stable EBITDA in 2026 after 1% rise in Q4

French operator Bouygues Telecom met its 2025 EBITDAaL guidance, reporting a broadly unchanged result year-on-year. The stable EBITDAaL performance is expected to continue in 2026, with virtually no contribution from La Poste Telecom activities. Sales billed to customers should also remain flat compared with 2025, while gross investments are forecast to decrease from the peak reached in recent years. In the three months to December, EBITDAaL rose 1 percent year-on-year to EUR 537 million, following a fracti

Airbus Defence and Space orders more satcom terminals from Greenerwave
FRANCE 25 FEB

Airbus Defence and Space orders more satcom terminals from Greenerwave

Greenerwave, a French start-up specialising in steerable terminals for GEO/LEO satellites, has been awarded two contracts totalling "several million euros" for the supply of satcom equipment to Airbus Defence and Space. The latter had previously selected Greenerwave's antennas as part of a wider procurement exercise led by France's defence procurement agency (DGA). The two partners indicated that this latest announcement includes a follow-up contract within the Copernic programme managed by the DGA, under w

Vantage Data Centers to build first campus in France with Altarea
FRANCE 25 FEB

Vantage Data Centers to build first campus in France with Altarea

Vantage Data Centers signed a partnership with French real estate company Altarea to build an data centre campus on land owned by Altarea near Bordeaux. The project, which has already secured an energy contract for a 400MW power connection, is expected to develop one of the largest data centre sites in France. It will mark Vantage Data Centers' arrival in the country, further expanding its existing European coverage across Germany, Ireland, Italy, Poland, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom.

Iliad's Free inks build-to-suit deal with TDF for 2,500 new cell sites
FRANCE 25 FEB

Iliad's Free inks build-to-suit deal with TDF for 2,500 new cell sites

French operator Free Mobile, part of the Iliad group, announced a build-to-suit (BTS) agreement with TDF providing for the deployment of 2,500 new cell sites. The partnership will significantly broaden TDF's mobile infrastructure footprint in France, which currently includes over 8,800 pylons, towers, and rooftop sites in operation. Free Mobile said it will remain the principal tenant for the new sites under a 20-year master service contract, adding that the deal supports its strategy of strengthening 4G/5G

France's Reglo Mobile suffers security breach exposing customer data
FRANCE 24 FEB

France's Reglo Mobile suffers security breach exposing customer data

B2C brand Reglo Mobile, owned by SFR parent Altice France and retail group E.Leclerc, has informed its customers of a security incident linked to a breach at one of its contractors. While no passwords or card details have been stolen, the compromised data includes customers' contact details and birth dates, said the company, adding that measures to stop further disclosure have been implemented. The breach has been reported to France's data protection authority (CNIL), and a formal complaint has been filed.

Second-hand phone ownership broadly stable at 22% in France – survey
FRANCE 23 FEB

Second-hand phone ownership broadly stable at 22% in France – survey

Second-hand phone ownership has remained broadly stable in France at 22 percent, reports BFM RMC citing the 2026 edition of the annual survey carried out by Kantar for device reconditioning specialist Recommerce. The proportion of respondents who have ever owned a second-hand phone has risen closer to the 50 percent mark, compared with 45 percent in January 2025. This rate now stands at 68 percent among those in the 15-18 age group, driven by parents' propensity to buy second-hand phones for children.

Nearly 2 percent of French fibre customers experience service failure monthly – Arcep
FRANCE 23 FEB

Nearly 2 percent of French fibre customers experience service failure monthly – Arcep

The proportion of French fibre customers experiencing at least one service failure per month stood at 1.7 percent, based on the running average of data from commercial operators across the twelve months to September 2025. The finding, which takes into account both network and equipment failure, is part of the seventh edition of the QoS (Quality of Service) report on FTTH networks compiled by telecom authority Arcep. For this indicator, the report also maps affected end-users by area, identifying hotspots wh

Orange France maintains commercial momentum in Q4 as revenues dip slightly
FRANCE 19 FEB

Orange France maintains commercial momentum in Q4 as revenues dip slightly

Orange France continued to gain mobile customers in the fourth quarter, while also posting the best FTTH net additions since Q4 2022. Retail service revenues, however, declined 0.6 percent year-on-year (-0.9% in Q3) to 2.82 billion, as ongoing growth in convergence only partly offset drops in the mobile and fixed-only segments. Revenue growth also remained negative in Wholesale operations, down 3.4 percent on a comparable basis to EUR 1.06 billion (-9.0% in Q3), while the contribution from equipment sales i

FRANCE 19 FEB

Orange meets FY targets with nearly 4% growth in underlying EBITDA

Orange met its targets for higher EBITDA and cash flow in 2025, as cost efficiency efforts helped offset flat revenues at the group. Annual revenues rose 0.9 percent on an organic basis to EUR 40.4 billion, while adjusted EBITDA after leases improved 3.8 percent on the same measure to EUR 12.5 billion. With eCapex little changed at EUR 6.2 billion, the organic cash flow rose 8.3 percent to almost EUR 3.7 billion. Adjusted net profit fell 5.7 percent to EUR 3.1 billion, and Orange confirmed a stable dividend

FRANCE 19 FEB

Orange lays out plans for growth in cash flow, dividends as capex falls in years ahead

Orange has forecast steady growth in cash flow and dividends in the years ahead, thanks to a combination of acquisitions, organic growth and savings on capex following completion of its fibre build and 5G roll-out in most of Europe. Under the new 'Trust the future' plan, organic cash flow is expected to grow from EUR 3.65 billion last year to at least EUR 4 billion in 2026 and EUR 5.2 billion in 2028. The dividend will increase accordingly, from EUR 0.75 share for 2025 to EUR 0.79 for 2026 and a minimum EUR

FRANCE 18 FEB

Mistral AI acquires French start-up Koyeb

France-based generative AI company Mistral AI has completed its first acquisition by entering into a definitive agreement to acquire Koyeb for an undisclosed amount. Specialising in high-performance serverless infrastructure for AI, Koyeb was founded in 2020 by three former employees of Iliad's French cloud subsidiary Scaleway, and has since raised seed funding from investors including Samsung Next, MongoDB, Acequia Capital, Kima Ventures, and Plug & Play Ventures. It provides clients with a hardware- and e

FRANCE 18 FEB

Bouygues Telecom adds Eurochannel's Allegro Spatial to IPTV offering

Media group Eurochannel announced that its TV channel Allegro Spatial is now available in France on Bouygues Telecom's IPTV platform. French operator Orange is also expected to add the channel to its IPTV offering in the near future. Like Eurochannel's Allegro HD channel, Allegro Spatial is fully dedicated to classical music, but offers a higher level of quality by supporting 4K UHD video and immersive Dolby Atmos sound.

FRANCE 18 FEB

TDF's French regional data centres to host Megaport points of presence

Infrastructure operator TDF announced a strategic agreement with Australia-based NaaS (Network-as-a-Service) provider Megaport to bring new connectivity services to French businesses. Under the partnership, Megaport's PoPs (Points of Presence) will be available in TDF's regional data centres in Bordeaux, Marseille, Lille, and Rennes, allowing TDF's data centre clients to access Megaport's international network covering over 1,000 sites across 26 countries. Megaport offers private and scalable connections to

FRANCE 17 FEB

Iliad's Free Pro adds cyber-security protection to legacy plans

French B2B operator Free Pro, the sister brand of Free, has improved its legacy plans at the same monthly rate by extending the availability of its cyber-security Essential service, launched just over a year ago in January 2025. The service is delivered by Iliad subsidiary and cyber security specialist Itrust, providing 24/7 monitoring to detect malware and similar threats in real time. Plans sold between 23 March 2021 and 13 January 2025 now include this protection automatically via a remote update to the

FRANCE 17 FEB

Arcep makes further proposals to facilitate cloud provider switching

France's telecom authority Arcep announced two new public consultations related to customers of cloud hosting services, stating that they support its mission to remove potential barriers to switching provider and adopting a multi-cloud environment. This follows a recommendation submitted to the French government last year to eliminate data transfer (egress) fees when the switching process involves non-multi-cloud services. Arcep has now confirmed that this recommendation was incorporated into law by ministe

FRANCE 17 FEB

France's Health Data Hub to migrate away from Microsoft Azure by year-end

France's government has confirmed plans to migrate the Health Data Hub platform away from Microsoft Azure, reports France Inter. The choice of Microsoft as the platform's hosting partner was first challenged in 2019, prompting the government to pledge a future move to a French or European alternative. Health Data Hub is a public resource developed to facilitate secure access to national health data in the cloud, aggregated from different sources mainly for research and analysis purposes. Following a supreme

FRANCE 17 FEB

French telecom service issues remain on downward trend in 2025 – Arcep

The proportion of French users experiencing issues with their fixed or mobile service declined further in 2025, based on a representative survey commissioned by telecom regulator Arcep. The rate dropped to 43 percent among mobile users, down a second consecutive year from 47 percent in 2024. In the fixed broadband segment, it decreased by 4 percentage points annually to 47 percent, while also dropping by 14 points compared to 2020. The findings are based on over 4,000 respondents surveyed by research instit

FRANCE 16 FEB

Arcep's sustainability study to include cloud service providers

France's telecom authority Arcep has confirmed a further expansion in the scope of its environmental data collection campaigns. From the current quarter, a number of cloud service providers will be required to supply a set of indicators on a regular basis, with the first findings scheduled to be published in Arcep's 2027 report on digital sustainability. This survey will cover greenhouse gas emissions, energy consumption, and the water required to cool down servers.

FRANCE 13 FEB

Orange taps Selectour to accelerate distribution of eSIM offers for travellers

Orange's eSIM plans for international travellers are now available at a preferential rate through Selectour, a travel agency group with over 1,000 points of sale across mainland France and overseas territories. As part of this collaboration, Selectour's physical agency network has been distributing the Orange Travel portfolio since early January. In addition, a co-branded affiliate portal has been created to serve Selectour's customers online.

FRANCE 13 FEB

France's NGE announces reorganisation of energy and telecom activities

French civil engineering group NGE has reorganised its operations dedicated to the deployment and maintenance of fixed, wireless, and digital infrastructure. These activities are now part of NGE Energies Solutions, a subsidiary that also carries out projects linked to electricity and street lighting installations. The reorganisation brings together a workforce of 1,200 employees, with a presence across 46 French sites and a business unit in Morocco.

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Background

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