At & T Bids For Stake In French Fibre Optic Link

The 8,600km fibre optic network, linking most of Frances main towns and cities, is owned by SNCF, the French state-owned railway company, which is looking for industrial and financial partners to help develop its assets full potential.

The network could be used to provide competition to France Telecom, the state-controlled operator, in the vital long-distance market after liberalisation of European telecoms markets on January 1 1998.

Compagnie Generale des Eaux, the utilities company, and Bouygues, the construction group, are also known to have submitted offers for a stake in SNCFs telecoms subsidiary. As operators of Frances second and third mobile telephone networks, these groups are thought likely to be among SNCFs first telecoms customers.

 

From AT&Ts perspective, the move is an attempt to salvage its French strategy after its unexpected exclusion from Cegetel, the G