SFR Clocks Up 100,000 3G Subscribers

May 31, 2005May 30, 2005 - source: BWCS

France's second largest mobile phone operator SFR has announced that by the end of May 2005 it had finally garnered 100,000 customers for its 3G services. The company's Chief Operating Officer, Pierre Bardon, said today that 90% of these subscriptions are from consumers.

Meanwhile the France Telecom-backed mobile operator Orange said that it hopes to reach 500,000 3G mobile users by the end of this year.

SFR launched its 3G service just over twelve months ago. At first it was only available to corporate users in the major cities of Paris, Lille and Lyon. Later in 2004 the operator extended the reach of its 3G offering to other French cities. SFR offers dual-mode GSM/W-CDMA handsets so subscribers are able to switch to GPRS outside of 3G service areas.

SFR, which is backed by Vivendi and Vodafone, was the first French operator to launch commercial 3G services. It is reported to have spent over €250 million on its network rollout having paid €4.95 billion for the UMTS concession back in July 2001. The third UMTS licence holder in France, Bouygues Telecom, is expected to introduce 3G imminently.