Far from the operators, but to the detriment of the consumers, a fierce legal battle takes place between the actors of the telephone antennas, for whom each pylon counts.
Legal conflicts take place almost everywhere: in Alsace, in Brittany, and even in Drôme. The Valocîme group, a newcomer to the passive telecommunications infrastructure market, called the TowerCo, is waging a merciless war against the players already established in this market, including TDF, which it has just condemned on appeal. The challenge ? Recover or install pylons broadcasting mobile telephony, radio and television by ruling out the competition. Except that this war has collateral victims: the end users.
Valocîme makes life difficult for its competitors to keep them away from everywhere in France
In Léoncel, in the Drôme, the Valocîme group first acquired a lease on a plot of land before winning its case against its competitor TDF, who was asked to leave the premises. This major player in pylons hosting mobile antennas has been operating, on site and for years, one of the pylons which in particular broadcast the mobile network. He now has until May to find a new location, dismantling his infrastructure, as reported by our colleagues from The Informed.
TDF has already had to pack up a dozen times. Admittedly, the company still hosts 8,000 pylons (18,000 a few years ago), but Valocîme is ready to bring down the statistics. 200 referrals are in progress against TDF as well as other column owners.
How does Valocîme do it? The company, supported by an overpowered American investment fund (KKR), generally reserves the takeover of a lease before its term, with an individual, a social landlord or a town hall. Once the lease comes to an end, the company asks the competing company, which already operates a pylon, to transfer the installation to it at cost price, or else to dismantle it so that it can build its own there. .
Between the assembly and dismantling of infrastructure: a quality of service that is decreasing, to the chagrin of users
The Valocîme teams are not idle: the company has signed 2,023 leases, reserved or already acquired. To hit the mark, Valocîme offers town halls to pay them a much higher rent (up to 17x higher) than that of competitors. To telecom operators, the firm proposes to reduce the rent they pay to operate the pylon by around 20%. Remember that in the past, it was the operators who owned these columns.
It turns out that despite rather attractive economic arguments, none of the four major operators has yet shaken hands with him. Orange still operates its own infrastructure through its subsidiary Totem, and SFR, Bouygues Telecom and Free still trust Cellnex or ATC, which bought their towers in exchange for a few billion euros.
So, to ignore Valocîme once pushed out, TDF, ATC and Cellnex keep their operator customers and try to move a little further. Often this works, but sometimes the changes affect the mobile network coverage, at least while the installations are in place, which serves the inhabitants near the conflicts. In Brest, in Heiligenberg (Alsace), but also in Savoy, we are worried, Valocîme multiplying the acquisition of leases.
Today, the TowerCo are asking that the law be respected, in the sense that it requires mayors to only host a player if he is already under contract with a mobile operator. This is not the case with Valocîme. A circular should be distributed locally to remind mayors of the legal framework. The company is now asking for infrastructure portability (which would make it easier to move from one TowerCo to another on the same plot). In Italy, the owners of pylons have, at the end of a lease, a right of preference to keep the roof or the plot of land they occupy. Perhaps a model to follow.
Source : The Informed
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