Interview with SFR President

After the buy out of French high-speed Internet operator, Neuf Cegetel , SFR's President Frank Esser is celebrating the 20th anniversary of the mobile telecom company. In an interview with Le Parisien, he mentioned that SFR has invested EUR 7bn (US$ 10.82bn) in six years to stay competitive with Orange and will continue investing EUR 1bn (US$ 1.55bn) each year. Esser also explained that SFR had always acted transparently with clients regarding calling plans. In response to consumer demands regarding dropping the prices of text messaging, Esser noted that SFR dropped its price to an average EUR 0.07 (US$ 0.11) in 2007 and that, with new offers, the price was actually under EUR 0.06 (US$ 0.09). These offers (such as Illimythics) won SFR 350,000 new subscribers (of 19mn total) in three months. As for the future, the absorption of Neuf Cegetel will open cross-platform multimedia possibilities such as diffusion of concerts, news, and music. SFR is continuing its policy of making more contracts with successful European companies such as GPS specialist, TomTom, and portable device company, Archos.