This financing agreement is the first of its kind between the European Investment Bank (EIB) and the French operator. The aim is to support the deployment of Bouygues Telecom's 5G network, "including in rural areas", and to increase its mobile radio network capacity "fourfold" by 2026, the EIB said in a statement.

Bouygues Telecom plans to invest €1.5 billion in the rollout of its 4G and 5G networks and in the fibre market, where the operator plans to win over 3 million additional customers. The group hopes to increase its subscription revenues by at least 40% over the next five years while increasing its profitability.

"Bouygues Telecom has great ambitions for mobile and 5G in the years to come and wants to help open up regions by reducing the digital divide. The European Union Bank's support for this vast industrial project is a validation of our choices and confirms the relevance of our strategy," said the operator's deputy CEO Christian Lecoq, quoted in the press release.

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Source : Le Figaro

Kosc Telecom was the solution devised by the public authorities to bring more competition to the business telecoms market. Just three years after its launch, Kosc is expected to file for bankruptcy leaving a slate of 120 million euros.

After the merger with SFR, Kosc acquired part of the activities of Numericable (Completel). Bpifrance had injected 9 million euros and OVH was also a shareholder via a contribution "in industry". The idea was to make Kosc the third man in the lucrative telecom business market, 85% owned by Orange and SFR.

In 2018, Caisse des Dépôts et Consignation had in turn promised to provide 20 million euros to Kosc. It was without counting on a grain of sand: a lawsuit lost to SFR and the threat of having to pay it 20 million euros. For the Caisse, the risk was too high and decided to withdraw from the case, leading to the fall of the telecom operator.

A new game should be played at the helm of the commercial court, with potential buyers. Indeed, the telecoms sector has evolved since 2016 and Free and Bouygues Telecom have in turn launched themselves into the business market. Bouygues' subsidiary would also be a serious candidate for the takeover of Kosc, and would therefore be favoured by OVH.

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Source : Le Figaro

Since 1995, Mary Meeker, an investor in the powerful venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, has been reporting on major Internet trends. An analysis of the global use of the Web and its services: e-commerce, social networks, video games, podcasts, various connected objects, etc.

The 2019 edition has reached a new milestone! According to the document, more than half (51%) of the world's population now has access to the Internet, or more than 3.8 billion people worldwide. Whereas in 2009, just ten years ago, this rate was only 24%. China, India and the United States are the three countries with the most Internet users in the world.

Nevertheless, global growth is slowing every year. Between 2018 and 2019, it was 6%. Indeed, for Mary Meeker, it is more difficult to connect new people as the number of Internet users increases.

The report details, for example, that Americans spend 6.3 hours online per day. An average increase of 7% compared to last year. They now spend more time in front of their mobile phone (almost 4 hours a day on average) than in front of their television (about 3h30).

The document also includes the 30 most highly valued new technology companies in the world. Of these, 18 are American, 7 are Chinese and only 1 European (Spotify, the Swedish music application, is ranked 30th in this ranking).

 

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Source : Le Figaro