SFR and Orange team up for fibre rollout

French ISPs France Telecom/Orange, and SFR have signed an agreement to cooperate on the deployment of fibre-to-the-home services in the country’s less densely populated areas.

The agreement is targeted at delivering fibre services to 9.8 million homes covered by the two network operators outside densely populated urban areas. France Telecom will deliver fibre to 7.5 million homes, with SFR providing fibre to 2.3 million. Other players will be able to access the networks under the conditions set by telecom regulator ARCEP.
Including deployments in urban areas, the pair estimate that 60% of French homes will be passed by fibre networks by 2020.