Having received the go ahead from ARCEP in mid-March to launch and commercialize their 4G network at 1,800 MHz across France, Bouygues is gearing up for its big launch later this year. In order to be prepared to help consumers with the transition, Director General Olivier Roussat confirmed in an interview with Le Figaro that they (Bouygues) will soon be recruiting 200 new customer service agents for their French call center. After having gone through several waves of layoffs, the most recent affecting 558 employees, this is a piece of good employment news coming from the telecom operator.
Roussat also confirmed that the cost of 4G access would be set at 5 euros/month when it comes on line on October 1st. He also stressed that they’re working hard to deploy a 4G service in cities where it is already available at 2,600 MHz, currently Strasbourg, Lille, Douai, Lyon, Toulouse, Issy-les-Moulineaux, Vanves, and Biarritz, and promised that Bouygues’ clients in these cities would have a commercial offer within a few weeks.
Although the bulk of Bouygues’ clients will need to wait a bit to get 4G, from Roussat’s perspective, Bouygues is already ahead of the pack as it will shortly be able to offer 4G to several of its customers and, starting in October, “can offer our clients 4G across a large part of mainland France, thanks to 1,800 MHz frequency, which offers optimal performance in 4G.”