Having been authorised in February to become a value-added services provider, Air France is aiming to acquire between 5% and 10% of France’s market for data transmission in the next few years, the air line’s telecommunications director told attendees at Networld-InterOp on Wednesday. We hope to see revenues of between $100m and $200m per year, Les Echos reports Philippe Balin saying. The market in France is currently estimated at between $2,000m and $2,500m per year. The airline is counting on using its existing network, which already offers 150 points of access in France, and which is acquiring 30 high-speed access nodes from US supplier Stratacom Inc. The ambition is not too far-fetched; the airline already counts some 50 transport clients and does some $40m a year from its data transmission services, which it says are profitable. Since it won authorisation to operate as a value-added network provider, Air France says it has won 15 new clients and $1m in extra revenue.
