Fixed operator strategies - 22/04/06

French ISP Free is the first in France to offer a WiFi-GSM bundled service, after being the first to introduce triple-play services in the market. It targets the 40% mobile calls made from subscriber's home.

Belgacom, Telenet, Mobistar, ALE& Brutele and Altice (all from Belgium) are bidding for a group of eight Walloon cable operators servicing Belgium's southern region with cable television. The bid should be worth some $200m and be announced by end-June.

Smart Link Communication (SLC) has deployed WiMAX to provide broadband wireless services in Algeria.

CTC (Chile) plans to invest $200m this year mostly in broadband and paid TV. It targets 20 to 30% of paid TV market over 5 years.

SingTel/Optus and six other telcos have teamed to jointly cooperate, and would want working with Telstra, to build a fiber-based high speed $2.2bn network in Australia. Telstra is unlikely to work with the group. It reminds a similar situation in Germany, where Arcor and other would likely participate in DT fiber optic network roll-out. For both incumbents, a new network means escape giving network access to its competitors.