Research and Markets: Steady as You Go in France's Mobile Telecom Space Despite All...

Research and Markets: Steady as You Go in France's Mobile Telecom Space Despite All the Merger and Acquisition Talks, According to New Market Research Report

DUBLIN, Ireland--(Business Wire)--
Research and Markets
(http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/0437f8/4q_2008_france_mob)
has announced the addition of IE Market Research Corp.'s new report
"4Q 2008 France Mobile Operator Forecast, 2008 - 2010" to their
offering.

"We continue to broadly maintain our previous forecasts for
France, given that operating metrics among French mobile operators
moved in line with previous quarters' trends for 2Q08," said
Christopher Fry, Principal Research Associate at IEMR. Subscriber
growth remained constant at 6.3%, below the 7% YoY growth seen in
1Q08. Service revenue growth improved slightly to 4.0% YoY in 2Q08
from 3.9% in 1Q08. MVNOs delivered a strong performance by capturing
61% subscriber net adds at the expense of SFR and Bouygues. ARPU
decline decelerated to 2.5% YoY as MOU resumed growth (+0.5% YoY) and
data ARPU growth continued. EBITDA margins remained stable at 36.2%.

"These steady as you go metrics do not lead us to believe that
there will be much happening in terms of the underlying numbers in the
French wireless telecom space over the foreseeable future despite the
regulatory changes and announced M&As," added Mr. Fry. Readers will
note that Altnet Iliad bid for France's fourth mobile license last
year but was unsuccessful because it declined to meet the financial
criteria for entering the bidding. Since then, media reports suggest
that the Government had decided to sell the 3G license spectrum in
blocks of frequencies through a 'beauty contest' rather than re-start
an auction. In the meantime, France is seeing mobile/broadband
consolidation with the EUR 4.4 billion acquisition of Neuf Cegetel by
SFR and exclusive discussions between Iliad and TI about a potential
Iliad purchase of TI's broadband unit, Alice France.

IEMR's France Mobile Operator Forecast covers up to 65 financial
and operational metrics on five wireless operators. Notable highlights
of the 4Q08 France Mobile Operator Forecast include:

- Although it is still relatively low compared to other European
countries, the wireless penetration level in France is increasing. Our
France model now shows that wireless penetration levels will reach
92.9% (previously forecasted at 95.7%) in 2010. We continue to predict
that total subscribers in France will increase from 56.9 million to
59.8 million between 2008 and 2010.

- Market shares (by subscribers) of major operators will remain
roughly the same over the next several years in France. In 2010, the
largest operator will continue to be Orange with a forecasted 43.2% of
total subscribers, followed by SFR (Vodafone) with 32.8% and Bouygues
with 16.7%.

- In 2010, we continue to forecast that SFR will be enjoying the
largest EBITDA margin in France at 38.3%. On the other hand, Bouygues
will have the lowest EBITDA margin at 26.0% (previously 28.1%).

IEMR's Global Mobile Operator Forecast covers up to 65 operational
metrics of 213 mobile operators in 50+ countries, making up 80% of the
world's population. Forecasts are based on our proprietary,
country-specific forecasting models. These models deploy multiple
regression analysis and cross-impact matrices that estimate
relationships between subscriber data, technology use and deployment
data, overall economic and demographic changes expected in a
particular country; and relate these to company operational and
financial metrics.

Companies Covered in this Country Mobile Operator Forecast

Orange

SFR (Vodafone)

Bouygues

Orange's MVNOs (Only "Numbers of subscribers", "Subscriber
growth", "Net subscriber adds", "YoY Growth", "Prepaid subscribers",
"Prepaid subscriber growth", "Post-paid % of total subscribers",
"Prepaid % of total subscribers", "Prepaid net adds", "Prepaid adds
growth", and "Share of total subscribers", "Share of net adds" are
available)

SFR's MVNOs (Only "Numbers of subscribers", "Subscriber growth",
"Net subscriber adds", "YoY Growth", "Prepaid subscribers", "Prepaid
subscriber growth", "Post-paid % of total subscribers", "Prepaid % of
total subscribers", "Prepaid net adds", "Prepaid adds growth", and
"Share of total subscribers", "Share of net adds" are available)

List of Charts:

Charts 1-68 Results & Forecasts for: CY04-CY10

Charts 69-136 Quarterly Results for: Jun 05 - Jun 08

For more information visit
http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/0437f8/4q_2008_france_mob

Research and Markets
Laura Wood, Senior Manager
Fax from USA: 646-607-1907
Fax from rest of the world: +353-1-481-1716
press@researchandmarkets.com

Copyright Business Wire 2008