IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/hal/journl/hal-02147914.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

An analysis of the disruptive impact of the entry of Free Mobile into the French mobile telecommunications market

Author

Listed:
  • Michel Berne

    (LITEM - Laboratoire en Innovation, Technologies, Economie et Management (EA 7363) - UEVE - Université d'Évry-Val-d'Essonne - IMT-BS - Institut Mines-Télécom Business School - IMT - Institut Mines-Télécom [Paris], IMT-BS - DEFI - Département Droit, Economie et Finances - TEM - Télécom Ecole de Management - IMT - Institut Mines-Télécom [Paris] - IMT-BS - Institut Mines-Télécom Business School - IMT - Institut Mines-Télécom [Paris])

  • Pierre Vialle

    (LITEM - Laboratoire en Innovation, Technologies, Economie et Management (EA 7363) - UEVE - Université d'Évry-Val-d'Essonne - IMT-BS - Institut Mines-Télécom Business School - IMT - Institut Mines-Télécom [Paris], IMT-BS - MMS - Département Management, Marketing et Stratégie - TEM - Télécom Ecole de Management - IMT - Institut Mines-Télécom [Paris] - IMT-BS - Institut Mines-Télécom Business School - IMT - Institut Mines-Télécom [Paris])

  • Jason Whalley

    (Northumbria University [Newcastle], IMT-BS - MMS - Département Management, Marketing et Stratégie - TEM - Télécom Ecole de Management - IMT - Institut Mines-Télécom [Paris] - IMT-BS - Institut Mines-Télécom Business School - IMT - Institut Mines-Télécom [Paris])

Abstract

The issue of disruptive operators has recently gained interest among researchers and regulators. From a regulator's perspective, disruptive operators can increase competitive rivalry in markets dominated by a handful of large companies, thereby allowing consumers to obtain more benefits in terms of price and quality. Largely overlooked in this discussion has been the impact that the specific identity, complementary assets of operators, and their strategies have on the marketplace dynamics. In this paper we explore the impact that one such operator – Free Mobile – has had on the French mobile telecommunications market. Drawing on a wide range of secondary sources, our analysis finds that the entry and subsequent growth of Free Mobile has had a complex and multi-faceted impact on the market. Their growth has been at the expense of the other three mobile network operators active in the French market, while their innovative business model, which enables it to compete on the basis of low costs, has been copied by its rivals. The specific characteristics of Free Mobile and of its strategy have contributed to a significantly alteration to how competition occurs in this market. This, in turn, triggers a strong incentive for restructuring, which is actually restrained by regulatory concerns.

Suggested Citation

  • Michel Berne & Pierre Vialle & Jason Whalley, 2019. "An analysis of the disruptive impact of the entry of Free Mobile into the French mobile telecommunications market," Post-Print hal-02147914, HAL.
    • Handle: RePEc:hal:journl:hal-02147914
    DOI: 10.1016/j.telpol.2018.07.007
    Note: View the original document on HAL open archive server: https://hal.science/hal-02147914v1
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://hal.science/hal-02147914v1/document
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.telpol.2018.07.007?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Peter Curwen, 2002. "The Future of Mobile Communications," Palgrave Macmillan Books, Palgrave Macmillan, number 978-1-4039-1865-9, December.
    2. Oecd, 2014. "Wireless Market Structures and Network Sharing," OECD Digital Economy Papers 243, OECD Publishing.
    3. de Mesnard, Louis, 2011. "More firms, more competition? The case of the fourth operator in France's mobile phone market," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 130(2), pages 186-195, April.
    4. Richard Le Goff & José Alejandro Rojas, 2015. "Is the French Case Illustrating that Competing Operators and Regulatory Strategies Force Telecom Services to Become a Commodity?," Post-Print hal-01444347, HAL.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Pierre Vialle & Jason Whalley & Shengxing Yang, 2021. "Seizing opportunities for international growth - The case of Iliad and the Italian mobile telecommunications market," Post-Print hal-03549645, HAL.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Berne, Michel & Vialle, Pierre & Whalley, Jason, 2019. "An analysis of the disruptive impact of the entry of Free Mobile into the French mobile telecommunications market," Telecommunications Policy, Elsevier, vol. 43(3), pages 262-277.
    2. Johannes M. Bauer, 2005. "Regulation and state ownership: conflicts and complementarities in eu telecommunications," Annals of Public and Cooperative Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 76(2), pages 151-177, June.
    3. Wellmann, Nicolas, 2019. "Hello . . . Are You Still There? An Empirical Analysis How Market Structure Affects Quality of Mobile Networks," VfS Annual Conference 2019 (Leipzig): 30 Years after the Fall of the Berlin Wall - Democracy and Market Economy 203579, Verein für Socialpolitik / German Economic Association.
    4. Jeanjean, François & Houngbonon, Georges Vivien, 2017. "Market structure and investment in the mobile industry," Information Economics and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 38(C), pages 12-22.
    5. ., 2014. "Restructuring among mobile service providers: a ten-year perspective," Chapters, in: Mobile Telecommunications Networks, chapter 1, pages 1-25, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    6. Queder, Fabian & Lehr, William & Haucap, Justus, 2020. "5G and Mobile Broadband Disruption," ITS Conference, Online Event 2020 224872, International Telecommunications Society (ITS).
    7. Rauf Gönenç & Béatrice Guérard, 2017. "Austria’s digital transition: The diffusion challenge," OECD Economics Department Working Papers 1430, OECD Publishing.
    8. Ralf Bebenroth & Kashif Ahmed, 2021. "Japanese firms' overpayments for cross‐border acquisitions," International Finance, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 24(2), pages 257-273, August.
    9. Nett, Lorenz & Sörries, Bernd, 2019. "Infrastruktur-Sharing und 5G: Anforderungen an Regulierung, neue wettbewerbliche Konstellationen," WIK Discussion Papers 443, WIK Wissenschaftliches Institut für Infrastruktur und Kommunikationsdienste GmbH.
    10. Houngbonon, Georges Vivien & Jeanjean, François, 2016. "What level of competition intensity maximises investment in the wireless industry?," Telecommunications Policy, Elsevier, vol. 40(8), pages 774-790.
    11. Houngbonon, Georges Vivien, 2015. "The Impact of Entry and Merger on the Price of Mobile Telecommunications Services," 26th European Regional ITS Conference, Madrid 2015 127148, International Telecommunications Society (ITS).
    12. Son, Pham Hai & Son, Le Hoang & Jha, Sudan & Kumar, Raghvendra & Chatterjee, Jyotir Moy, 2019. "Governing mobile Virtual Network Operators in developing countries," Utilities Policy, Elsevier, vol. 56(C), pages 169-180.
    13. Chen, Xu & Wang, Xiaojun & Chan, Hing Kai, 2016. "Channel coordination through subsidy contract design in the mobile phone industry," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 171(P1), pages 97-104.
    14. Nickerson, Jordan & Griffin, John M., 2017. "Debt correlations in the wake of the financial crisis: What are appropriate default correlations for structured products?," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 125(3), pages 454-474.
    15. Mackley, James R.K., 2008. "European 3G auctions: Using a comparative event study to search for a winner's curse," Utilities Policy, Elsevier, vol. 16(4), pages 275-283, December.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:hal:journl:hal-02147914. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: CCSD (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.