The Direction Generale des Postes et Telecommunications, the regulatory branch of France’s Ministry of Posts, Telecommunications and Information Technologies, favored Bouygues Telecom SA and Generale des Eaux SA in two decisions last week that should improve their ability to compete with France Telecom. The regulator declared that Bouygues is free to choose where its points of interconnection should be on France Telecom’s network for its DCS 1800 digital cellular service. It had previously been obliged to accept connections selected by the operator. As a result, its investment load is likely to be less onerous. Furthermore, the regulator said, Bouygues is obliged to pay France Telecom only by the second and not in packets of 24 seconds. The decisions are preliminary and will be reviewed at the end of the year after the conclusion of an audit of France Telecom’s costs. The regulator also favoured the new competitor in declaring that the payments required of Generale des Eaux to France Telecom for its messaging service Tam-Tam should be better oriented toward costs.
