By Ruth Bender and Inti Landauro
PARIS--Bouygues Telecom Wednesday said it will offer a package
of Internet, television and fixed-line phone services for around
ten euros less than its main competitors, ratcheting up the
pressure in France's telecommunications sector where price wars in
the mobile segment are already capping profits.
Bouygues Telecom, owned by Bouygues SA (EN.FR), said it will
offer a triple-play package for 19.99 euros ($27.5) a month, an
offer it hopes will boost its market share in the fixed-line
business.
Most competitors' standard triple-play offers are priced around
EUR30 a month, though clients can often get the package for lower
price if they are also a mobile client.
Operators--including Vivendi SA's (VIV.FR) SFR, Orange SA
(ORA.FR) and Bouygues Telecom--have been hurting since low-cost
operator Iliad SA's (ILD.FR) Free entered the mobile telephony
market two years ago and forced operators to lower their prices,
which has been eating into their profit margins.
"The large players of the industry manage to make a 40% margin
on the fixed service, that is the kind of margin you make on luxury
products," Bouygues SA Chief Executive Martin Bouygues said at a
press conferenceto launch the company's new offer. "This will bring
prices down." The CEO had previously said he would start a price
war in the fixed-line telephone business, hitting out at his key
rival Free.
Bouygues's new offer, to be launched March 3, will only be
available to clients residing in cities with more than 100,000
inhabitants.
Write to Ruth Bender at ruth.bender@wsj.com and Inti Landauro at
inti.landauro@wsj.com
Subscribe to WSJ: http://online.wsj.com?mod=djnwires