Regulator suggests France Telecom breakup

PARIS, FRANCE: The French competition authority Arcep has suggested that breaking up France Telecom could be a way to prevent the company from getting a dominant position in fibre optics, a French newspaper said in its Wednesday edition.

A France Telecom spokeswoman had no comment on the unsourced article in Les Echos which said the matter was brought up at an Arcep meeting on Tuesday but that at the time nothing justified such a move.

France Telecom, France's incumbent telecoms company, has been rolling out its fibre optic network, which have larger data transfer rates than ADSL and quicker download times for services like video on demand, to compete with cheaper rivals such as Iliad.