Bouygues Telecom persues partners for $2.2bn fibre rollout

French mobile operator Bouygues Telecom is said to be on the hunt for partners for two fibre infrastructure deployments worth $2.2 billion.

According to a report by Bloomberg, the company seeks to raise a fund of close to €1 billion in capital expenditures for the fibre project in France. Bouygues Telecom is said to be working with an advisor on the plan, known internally as Project Saint-Marlo, according unnamed sources.

Alongside this, the company is said to be contacting out to additional potential partners for another fibre network deployment, tentatively called Project Asterix, which in turn will cost an additional €1 billion. At this stage only teaser documents have yet been issued.

To date, Bouygues Telecom is reported to have received interest from numerous infrastructure funds as well as French companies, according to sources.

A recent report from the Autorité de Régulation des Communications électroniques et des Postes (Regulatory Authority for Electronic Communications and Posts, Arcep), more than one in three of all internet subscribers in France has a superfast access line. Of these 10 million, a total of 5.8 million have end-to-end fibre.

As of the end of September, Bouygues Telecom delivers fibre connections to 10 million premises an increase of more than 40% from the previous year. This footprint covers more than 3,090 municipalities, with the intention of increasing this to 12 million premises by the end of the year, specifically by adding customers in high to medium-density areas. 

Capacity contacted Bouygues Telecom for comment, it has yet to respond.

Earlier this week Bouygues Telecom was awarded a contract to design, build and maintain over 100 5G base stations and data centres across France.

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