Bouygues group chairman and CEO Martin Bouygues has addressed a letter to all of France's deputies and senators to criticise what he sees as advantages given to new operator Free Mobile and to ask for lawmakers to not allow telecom regulator Arcep to renew its roaming contract with Orange France in 2018. He complains that Free has the advantage of being able to invest in its network only where profitable, Le Monde reports. Free only invested EUR 142 million in its network in 2011, when it should have been compelled to spend much more, he writes. Bouygues Telecom invested around EUR 600 million last year, to upgrade and extend its network coverage. Bouygues also insisted on the importance of not allowing Free Mobile to benefit from any similar roaming agreement for LTE, in an effort to defend competition. He blamed Bouygues' plan to cut 550 jobs on the need to remain competitive in an environment where a low-cost operator has been allowed to undersell the market.
