SFR Employs Mobile Broadband for ADSL Customer Retention Drive

| Jun 18, 2009 | Consumer Broadband Services - Europe | Competitive Update

| Analyst: Ben Tudor

Current Perspective: Positive
Vendor Importance: Moderate
Market Impact: High

Event Summary

June 17, 2009 – SFR is offering 20,000 new and 20,000 existing ADSL customers a EUR 5 per month upgrade that includes mobile broadband and WiFi access. The offer is open until 18 August in SFR stores only. The mobile broadband dongle costs EUR1, with three hours per month of access to the Internet using the device included in the EUR 5 charge. Further access is available on a tariff.

Analytical Summary

• Current Perspective: Positive on SFR’s decision to offer existing and new customers a 3G mobile broadband dongle with their ADSL subscriptions, as it is a good, low-tech and low-cost way to add and retain customers, and presents a significantly cheaper and simpler offer than that of Orange, the other market player offering combined fixed and mobile subscriptions.

• Vendor Importance: Moderate to SFR, as the company has already proven willing to use mobile broadband in new and interesting ways; ADSL customers suffering from outages are offered mobile broadband in the interim, for example.

• Market Impact: High on the French broadband market, as this signals a new front in the war between the three incumbent mobile operators. Orange, SFR and Bouygues can all offer fixed and mobile broadband, and combining the two in bundles is inevitable. The creativity with which bundles are put together – and Orange has been a master at the full-featured multiplay bundle – will dictate how and where these are sold.

CLIENTS ONLY

Competitive Positives and Concerns

Recommended Vendor Actions

| Client access - Full report in Consumer Broadband Services - Europe | More information

Recommended Competitor Actions

• The nearest bundle that Orange has to SFR’s offer - le pack mobilite - is a little top-heavy in comparison, with fixed line phone and TV. A cut down version of this would be competitive. Orange should also consider marketing the existing pack more forcefully, with an emphasis on overall value, and should also play up its own WiFi connectivity capability, included in the pack.

• Bouygues could and should introduce a competing service quickly; at present its Home broadband and mobile services plays are voice-centric in the extreme. A mobile broadband and Bbox service would be relatively simple to introduce – although not in time for the summer.

• Free needs to move from its beta WiFi test to production as swiftly as possible without fielding a substandard service. The company is losing out to mobile operators and MVNOs on mobile data.

CLIENTS ONLY

Competitive Positives and Concerns

Recommended Vendor Actions

| Client access - Full report in Consumer Broadband Services - Europe | More information

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