Fibre: Caisse des Dépôts invests in Kosc
After many technical and legal setbacks last year, the horizon is finally clear for Kosc. In mid-June, Banque des territoires (Caisse des Dépôts) invested 20 million euros in the capital of a new subsidiary, Kosc Infrastructures, in order to contain the operator's network assets. Guénaël Pépin reviews with the operator these last months in an article from Nextinpact.
While wholesale offers for operators are tending to become more widespread, hopes are essentially focused on Kosc. Indeed, the company, co-founded in 2016 by OVH, aims to break the duopoly of Orange and SFR in this market. To access the local loops of major operators and thus cover the whole of France, Kosc must connect its network to hundreds of NROs. In practice, it recovers Completel's national network to connect to Orange and SFR's local networks. Through these various networks, the company hopes to become a single control point for professional operators.
However, Kosc did not have the financial resources. 100 million over five years to cover the entire private deployment area. The financing of Caisse des Dépôts was therefore necessary. "The investment by the Bank of the Territories makes it possible to finance the implementation of the 100% fibre coverage strategy in the private zone" confirms Kosc. The creation of the Kosc Infrastructures subsidiary allows Caisse des Dépôts to limit its control to major infrastructure decisions. As for Kosc, this allows it to better link its private deployments with future contracts with RIPs. After a year and a half of competition between public and private infrastructure funds, the company's choice "naturally" turned to a RIP concession model. "Caisse des Dépôts was able to make us a financial offer that matched our ambitions. Beyond the financial aspect, she brings us the expertise of her teams who benefit from an excellent understanding of market issues, due to her experience working alongside RIPs" assures Antoine Fournier, General Manager of Kosc.
However, the operation almost failed. Indeed, one of the investment conditions of the Bank of the Territories was the proper technical and legal functioning of Kosc. However, several technical and organizational problems with SFR, when the assets were transferred, took them to court. "Not all the disputes with SFR are behind us, so we don't want to express ourselves any further on the subject. All we can say is that our partners have largely congratulated us on our perseverance during the legal battles of recent months. Just because Kosc is under legal pressure from a powerful player does not mean that Kosc bends" the company says.
Despite its disputes with SFR, the network is now operational. The company has around thirty customer operators and has been online since mid-July with more than 2 million eligible catches throughout the country. Even the competition from Bouygues, SFR and Orange on the "bitstream fibre" offers does not worry the operator. "Thanks to the mobilisation of Kosc Telecom teams, there is now a first bitstream fibre offer and your question shows that the market is finally opening up! It is so much better for our operator customers" adds Antoire Fournier. Kosc does not intend to stop there as it now installs itself in "neutral" data centers to open access to its backbone links, its professional fiber collection and enterprise fiber.
Source : Nextinpact
