France Telecom chairman Michel Bon said the French operator wanted to grow internationally in order to offset the impact of competition in France. From 1998, France Telecom will lose its monopoly position entirely and both Compagnie Generale des Eaux SA and Bouygues Telecom SA have formed international alliances to take it on. France Telecom aims to generate at least 10% of its sales abroad and said Bon was in Belgium for the inauguration of the country’s second mobile telecommunications operator, Mobistar, in which France Telecom has a majority stake. The Belgian operator opened six weeks ago and has 20,000 subscribers, aiming for a 25% market share in 2005. France Telecom hopes to hear in November that a consortium it leads has won a Groupe Speciale Mobile license in Romania and the group is in negotiations with the government of Poland. In Italy, France Telecom has no ambitions in cellular telecommunications, because of the presence of state-owned TIM Omnitel, which is run by Ing C Olivetti & Co SpA. France Telecom is talking with Olivetti about co-operating in Infostrada, a fixed-line venture which is bidding for the Italian railway’s network.
