registration document France Telecom 2009 - Orange.com

6 OVERVIEW
overview of the Group’s Business
OF BUSINESS
Switzerland
The Competition Commission concluded that Swisscom has
a dominant position in the broadband market. Furthermore,
it considered that until 2007, Swisscom provided other
telecommunications service providers such as Sunrise, Tele2,
VTX or Green, broadband connectivity services (BBCS) at a price
which was too high compared to the price Swisscom charged
to its ADSL end-customers. Since the telecommunication
service providers are dependent on purchasing BBCS from
Swisscom in order to offer ADSL to end-customers, the high
price at which they purchase the service prevents them from
offering a profi table ADSL service to end-customers. This type
of abuse is also known as margin squeeze. Swisscom indicated
that it considers the fi ne as unjustifi ed and that it will appeal the
decision before the Federal Administrative Court.
Regulatory framework
In April 2009, OFCOM launched a public consultation on the
revision of various Swiss Telecommunication Ordinances.
Orange submitted a response to the consultation on June 11,
2009.
In November 2009, the Federal Council approved the revision of
the Telecommunication Ordinances. Six ordinances have been
revised, among which the OST ordinance on telecommunication
services, the ORAT ordinance on addressing resources and
the OIP ordinance on price indication. Main new requirements
concern price transparency obligations for international roaming
and requirements related to the Ombudscom.
In September 2009, the second Chamber of the Parliament
rejected the ex-ante regulation proposed by ComCom.
In the meantime, the Federal Council has been requested to
produce a report on the situation of the telecommunications
market (last mile access, MTRs, child protection, international
roaming, and market dominance of incumbent) by summer
2010. Once it is published, the debate is expected to continue
and a revision of the Swiss telecommunication act is likely to
follow again.
Fiber
In October 2009, ComCom announced that the round table
on the roll-out of the optical fi ber network to homes (Fiber To
The Home - FTTH) and the corresponding work groups are
producing concrete results. The major players agreed with
uniform technical standards. The regulator considers that
technical barriers to the rapid expansion of the optical fi ber
network have been removed. The participants in the round table
also agreed that all providers should have access to the optical
fi ber network under the same conditions, in order to protect the
end-users’ freedom of choice.
Orange Switzerland’s Activities
Z FINANCIAL AND OPERATING INDICATORS 2009 2008 2007
Revenues (in millions of Swiss francs ) 1,296 1,310 1,341
Number of subscribers (in millions)
Fixed lines 11 12
Mobile customers 1,558 1,543 1,510
o/w mobile broadband 475 314 196
Total mobile ARPU (Swiss francs per year) 714 761 827
Source: Orange
118
2009 REGISTRATION DOCUMENT / FRANCE TELECOM