October 4, 2006: SFR rolls out its “mobile-centric” strategy

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Press release

La Défense, 4 October 2006

SFR rolls out its “mobile-centric” strategy

• launch of an unlimited mobile-at-home telephone service (“Happy Zone”)
• acquisition of the broadband and fixed telephony business of Télé 2 France

SFR is rolling out a new “mobile-centric” strategy, which offers all its customers even greater continuity of usage and tailoring of their telecommunications services. As part of this strategy, SFR is launching an unlimited mobile-at-home telephone service (“Happy Zone”) and has finalised its acquisition of the broadband and fixed telephony business of Télé 2 France.

The background to this strategy is that mobility and the Internet have become the principal drivers for growth in this sector and that the use of mobile phones, still showing strong growth, has made a natural move to include the Internet.

Launch of “Happy Zone”

SFR is today launching the first mobile telephony service in France to offer unlimited calls to landline numbers for all calls made in and around the home, 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

This “Happy Zone” service is SFR’s response to the demand for continuity and simplicity from users who want to use their mobile phones for all their calls, both at home and elsewhere. “Happy Zone” offers both greater convenience and continuity of service – by using the mobile network, customers don’t have to change the phone they use to benefit from this. It means that they will now only need a single phone book and a single answerphone, i.e. those on the mobile phone that they carry everywhere with them (94% of SFR’s customers have their mobile with them at all times, according to a Louis Harris survey carried out in May 2006).

SFR will be launching this new service in stages, starting with a pilot phase beginning on 4 October in the districts of Bouches-du-Rhône (13) and Haute-Garonne (31), before expanding it to cover the whole of France during 2007. The “Happy Zone” option costs 15 euros per month on top of the existing SFR price packages, and is available starting from the 2-hour bundle.

SFR enters the ADSL broadband market

The “Happy Zone” service is one of the building blocks of SFR’s “mobile-centric” strategy, which has been designed to meet its customers’ expectations. This strategy is also demonstrated by SFR’s entry into the ADSL broadband market, by means of its acquisition of the broadband and fixed telephony business of Télé 2 France, announced on 3 October 2006.

As a result of this operation SFR has acquired nearly 300,000 ADSL broadband customers and 3 million fixed voice customers who are likely to migrate to ADSL services.


About SFR

With 17.4 million customers and 8,000 employees, SFR is the second largest mobile telecommunications operator in France and has been the market leader in terms of net sales (new customers) since 2003. Operating its own GSM/GPRS and UMTS/HSDPA networks, SFR is able to provide a complete range of mobile telephony and multimedia services, as well as mobile data solutions to its personal, SOHO and business customers. SFR has become the operator of choice for new uses of mobile phones, having been the first operator to launch 3G and 3G+ services on the French market, and had 1.6 million exclusively 3G customers at the end of June 2006. The company is also a player on the fixed telecommunications market through its 40.67% interest in neuf cegetel, the leading alternative operator on the French market. SFR benefits from a stable ownership structure, with two major shareholders, Vivendi (56%) and Vodafone (44%).