Orange has finalised the sale of 50 percent of its FTTP infrastructure business in rural France, first announced at the end of January. The deal has resulted in the creation of Orange Concessions, valuing the fibre venture at EUR 2.675 billion. The telecom group will share ownership with a group of three investors, namely Banque des Territoires, part of French state-owned bank CDC (Caisse des Depots), CNP Assurances and EDF Invest.
The consortium said that Orange Concessions will be led by Jean-Germain Breton, an executive from the telecom group’s Wholesale division. He will be supported by a team of over 100 staff, 60 percent of whom will be based close to the venture’s local partners.
Orange Concessions will run open access infrastructure, including 24 public initiative networks already operational, on which 87 telecom operators are active. When completed, the footprint will pass 4.5 million premises, of which the majority are yet to be covered. The deployment phase should end by 2025 across the 6,500 municipalities within this footprint.
