The deal will allow the French wholesale operator to offer its customers its own set of fibre services, with the company confirming that it will begin offering said services from September onwards and the first deliveries to be made by early 2018.
The company already offers dark fibre, DSL and Ethernet connections and a Connectivity-as-a-Service (CaaS) platform that allows its customers to manage its connections from a single interface. It has invested heavily in its network and updating its equipment, opting for ADVA Optical Networking because of its DWDM transport network, providing customers with up to 16Tb/s optical connectivity. It also utilises, NOKIA MEF Certified 7750 SR Routers to collect, aggregate, and transport its Ethernet services with up to 100Gb/s connectivity.
The move also comes in line with the recent measures placed upon Orange by Arcep (the Authority for the Regulation of Electronic Communications and Posts), forcing the incumbent to allow rival service providers to re-sell its products to the enterprise market. It also placed controls on wholesale offers for businesses, to avoid “excessive” and “predatory pricing”.
“Arcep was highlighting it again last December, fibre deployment over the last 10 years has mainly benefitted the residential market more than the business market” said Antoine Fournier, CEO of Kosc Telecom. “Kosc’s objective has always been to make fibre more accessible to businesses and professionals, irrespective of their size and budget, so they have a chance to catch up. We want fibre to be as accessible as copper (DSL)”.
Orange was also fined in December 2015, by the regulator for abusing its position in the corporate sector over the last decade.
Having only been formed last year as a result of the merger of Completel and OVH’s networks, plus the launch of its B2B network in April of this year, Kosc already has its eyes set on becoming the third biggest fixed-network operator in the French wholesale market.
