French construction group Bouygues SA, already the third largest French mobile phone company, is branching out into fixed line telecoms, with a new venture called 9Telcom, just three weeks before the French telecoms market is fully opened up for competition. 9Telecom is going up against incumbent France Telecom SA and Cegetel SA, the other competitive French venture which is backed by British Telecommunications Plc and Compagnie Generale des Eaux SA. Bouygues originally bid for a place in Cegetel, but got beaten by Eaux for the contract, which uses the optic fiber network running alongside the tracks of French national railway operator SNCF Societe Nationale des Chemins de Fers. The formation of 9Telecom, which was anticipated earlier this year (CI No 3,177), leaves Bouygues with 40.8% of the shares, Telecom Italia SpA with 39.2% and German Veba Telecom AG with 20%. 9Telecom is to offer both consumer and business telecoms and data services and expects to have a revenue of $1.7bn within ten years.
