The Big Question: Есть ли у европейских телекоммуникационных компаний пространство для роста?

euronews (на русском)

The Big Question: Есть ли у европейских телекоммуникационных компаний пространство для роста?  Сдерживание цен для потребителей – не единственный приоритет, когда компаниям нужно расти, чтобы оставаться конкурентоспособными, отметила глава Orange Кристель Хейдеманн.  ЧИТАТЬ ДАЛЕЕ : http://ru.euronews.com/2025/12/29/the-big-question-est-li-u-evropejskih-telekommunikacionnyh-kompanij-prostranstvo-dlya-ros  Подписывайтесь: Euronews можно смотреть на Dailymotion на 12 языках

Transcript

00:00The traffic continues to grow 10% to 30% every year on our networks, but revenues are not increasing.

00:07It's a complex transaction because many millions of customers that are at stake.

00:17Welcome to The Big Question, the series from Euronews where we sit down with some of the biggest names in industry.

00:25I'm Eleanor Butler and today I'm joined by Crystal Hedeman, CEO at Orange.

00:32Crystal, thank you so much for being here with us.

00:35Orange has been ranked for the 14th time the number one mobile phone network provider in France.

00:42What is the key to your success?

00:45We've been investing, investing and investing to please customers who make sure we would meet both coverage targets,

00:52but as well keep the increase of traffic that we continue to see in our networks

00:56and then covering railways, covering roads, covering remote areas.

01:02It's a lot of detailed work that our customers don't notice in the end.

01:05You just see whether on or off you get the right network and you get the quality of calls, videos, streaming and everything.

01:12You recently became the first European operators to surpass 10 million fiber customers.

01:18That was in France. Why are people choosing Orange?

01:22Well, we've been investing in fiber for already more than 15 years.

01:27And we are indeed the first operator to reach that 10 million milestone in one country.

01:33That's in France.

01:33And it's true that today in France, we have 93% of homes connectable through fiber,

01:38thanks to our investments, not just us.

01:40Others have invested as well.

01:42And fiber is something that has huge potential to continue to be upgraded.

01:45Telecoms is quite a saturated industry. Is that something that worries you?

01:56The telecom industry, because of demography, because of saturation, because of equipment,

02:02is now a slow growth market in volume.

02:06And then the ability to keep on increasing value depends on our ability to innovate,

02:12to provide more services to our customers.

02:14And it's true that if we compare to other continents, we don't have the growth that we used to have.

02:20But despite that, we need to continue to invest massively on infrastructure,

02:23because the traffic continues to grow 10 to 30% every year on our networks.

02:29People consume more videos, artificial intelligence.

02:32It starts to grow in our networks as well.

02:35But revenues are not increasing.

02:37And the cost of maintaining our networks because of cybersecurity, because of resilience to extreme events,

02:44keeps on increasing.

02:45And that's why we believe that consolidation is a must in that environment.

02:50You recently made a joint bid with Brieg and Free for SFR.

02:56SFR quite quickly rejected that bid.

02:59Why do you think that was?

03:00We're talking about multi-billion.

03:03I mean, the non-binding offer was 17 billion.

03:06It's still preliminary.

03:07That means we're talking about a lot of money, so you can expect a lot of discussion to happen.

03:12And it's a complex transaction, because many millions of customers that are at stake.

03:17France is our first country for Orange.

03:18So this transaction is very important for us.

03:22This type of transaction is not something that can last forever in terms of negotiation,

03:27because the value at stake is important and the dynamic is important.

03:31So that's why it's something that we are clearly engaged in trying to conclude.

03:37But there's no guarantee that this non-binding offer will go to an end.

03:40Critics would say that less competition in the French market could mean that prices will go up

03:46and that services will deteriorate.

03:48Do you think that is a fair criticism?

03:51The reality is that we concluded a transaction in Spain two years ago,

03:55combining Orange and MassMovil to create a leader in Spain.

03:59And we went through the exact same questions from antitrust authorities,

04:03from the DG competition in Brussels.

04:05We explained that, first of all, the market dynamic is very different from what it was five to ten years ago,

04:11because 4G has been rolled out, people, consumers are equipped.

04:14And the reality is that three players competing in a flat to small positive market is probably as competitive,

04:22if not more, than four players or five players competing in a market where there's three, four, five percent growth.

04:29There's been a call from many companies to revise merger guidelines.

04:33Competition is good for innovation.

04:35Competition is good for consumers.

04:37But the reality is that we've probably reached the limit of just looking at price for consumers.

04:42We really need to take into account the ability for companies to invest in a world that's moving very fast.

04:49And where, in our markets, we have to deal with big companies.

04:52The European Commission is working on the Digital Networks Act.

04:57Could you give us a brief resume and tell us your thoughts on the proposal so far?

05:01Today, we have a very heavy regulation for telecom.

05:04That is somehow dated from the time when we had monopoly in every country

05:09and we decided to open the telecom industry to competition.

05:13And so we need to update the regulation to take into account the fact that we're talking now about fiber networks.

05:21We're talking about 5G networks.

05:23So the Digital Networks Act, it's really about modernizing.

05:27It's an analysis from the Commission that the investment in telecom infrastructure

05:31is not at the level required to provide 5G and fiber to all European citizens by 2030.

05:38We estimate that the gap of investment, given the market structure today,

05:42is 200 billion euros of investment that is not going to come from telecom operators

05:48unless we provide safer and more incentives to invest in infrastructure.

05:53Also, there has been resistance to the DNA from certain member states

05:57who argue that consolidation isn't necessarily the best way forward

06:01and they're clearly resisting greater intervention from Brussels.

06:05What would be your message to these governments?

06:09There's one thing for sure, is that the reality of the markets in every country in Europe,

06:15there's a huge difference.

06:16I mean, that being said, the need to modernize regulation, to adapt to a new framework,

06:21this is something that's true across countries.

06:23So I think we need to find the right balance.

06:25And we're not saying that it's going to be one size fits all.

06:28What we're saying is that it's OK to regulate and to fix things when they don't work.

06:33And you've suggested that greater telecoms consolidation is required

06:38so that Europe can compete with the US and China.

06:41Can you explain that a little bit more for me?

06:43In the US, you have three national mobile operators.

06:47With the size of the US, that means they have on average more than 100 million customers themselves.

06:53In China, they also have three operators.

06:56And the largest operator in China has one billion customers.

07:00In average, in Europe, a single operator has five million customers.

07:05We have 27 markets in Europe.

07:07And the single market, even though it's Germany or France, the largest, or Spain, largest economy in Europe,

07:14they're still much smaller than the US or China.

07:16The fixed cost to maintain a network, to upgrade, is such that the more mobile customers you have,

07:23the lower the cost per customer is.

07:25That's why we see a lot of network sharing.

07:27So this ability to continue to cope, to make sure that not only we can provide the coverage

07:33and the next generation connectivity that's required for European citizens,

07:38but it's also making sure we can cope with the needs to protect and secure those infrastructures.

07:44I think that's a good point to leave it there.

07:46Thank you so much, Crystal, for sharing your insights on the big question.

07:49Thank you.

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