Altice France’s debt has been restructured, and Bouygues Telecom, Free and Orange are stepping forward with a joint bid for SFR. The offer was immediately rejected.
Here are a few key numerical context points.
€17 billion
The value of the offer. Bouygues Telecom would contribute 43% (€7.3 billion); Free, 30% (€5.1 billion); Orange, 27% (€4.6 billion).
The B2B business would be taken over primarily by Bouygues Telecom, and by Free.
The B2C activity would be shared among the three operators.
Other players and resources – notably infrastructures and spectrum – would also be shared.
SFR’s mobile network in non-dense areas would be taken over by Bouygues Telecom.
4 participations
The offer explicitly excludes four Altice participations. Specifically:
- Intelcia
Outsourcing subsidiary (contact center, debt collection, IT consulting…). 40,000 employees. - UltraEdge
Result of the spin-off of SFR’s datacenter activities, carried out in 2024 with the entry of the investment fund Morgan Stanley Infrastructure Partners.
250 sites, including 90 usable for colocation (more than 500 m² of installed IT surface); 45 MW of available power.
SFR remained a customer (for telecom activities) and a minority shareholder. - XPFibre
Formerly SFR FTTH. Infrastructure operator specializing in fiber networks. Active in low- and medium-density areas (AMEL, AMII and RIP). Created in 2019 with a 49.9% stake held by AXA, Allianz and the Canadian fund OMERS. Renamed in 2021 after Covage’s absorption. - Altice Technical Services
ERT Technologies (1,350 employees; founded in 2000) is its core entity. It designs, builds, operates and maintains network infrastructures.
80 MHz
The size of the block of frequencies that SFR is licensed to operate on the 5G “core band” (3.4 – 3.8 GHz). The allocation took place in 2020. Orange obtained 90 MHz; Bouygues Telecom and Free, 70 MHz each.
SFR also deploys 5G on the 2100 MHz band. It holds 15 MHz uplink (1920.5 – 1935.5 MHz) as well as 15 MHz downlink (2110.5 – 2125.5 MHz).
The operator also has 5 MHz duplex in the 700 MHz band, allocated in 2015 as part of the second digital dividend (the reallocation of frequencies formerly used by DTT).
15,345 sites
As of October 1, 2025, the number of technically active SFR 5G sites in metropolitan France stood at 15,345 (out of 18,989 authorized sites). The counts were 16,800 for Bouygues Telecom (20,686 authorized), 21,938 for Free (25,947 authorized) and 14,797 for Orange (17,608 authorized).
- 700 MHz band
SFR: no sites
Bouygues Telecom: no sites
Free: 20,911 operational sites (25,415 authorized)
Orange: 12,007 operational sites (13,679 authorized) - 2100 MHz band
SFR: 10,944 operational sites (14,637 authorized)
Bouygues Telecom: 16,489 operational sites (20,582 authorized)
Free: no sites
Orange: 1,674 operational sites (2,688 authorized) - 3.5 GHz band
SFR: 10,086 operational sites (12,555 authorized)
Bouygues Telecom: 10,037 operational sites (12,544 authorized)
Free: 9,762 operational sites (12,309 authorized)
Orange: 13,075 operational sites (15,084 authorized)
According to Altice, SFR’s 5G network covered 84.5% of the population as of June 30, 2025.
25,415 million customers
Fixed and mobile combined, SFR counted just over 25 million customers as of June 30, 2025.
On the fixed side, there were 6.109 million customers, down from 6.227 million a year earlier (-1.9%). This figure corresponds to end users subscribed to at least one service based on fiber, cable, or 4G box.
On the mobile side as well, SFR lost customers. Over the year, its base fell from 19.624 million to 19.306 million (-1.6%).
2028
The horizon for “becoming France’s preferred operator by offering the best value-for-money on the market.”
That is, at least, the objective stated by Altice within its SFR Imagine plan launched in October 2024. Behind it lies a focus on its telecoms activity, which included the sale of Altice Médias (BFMTV and RMC) to CMA-CGM for about €1.5 billion.
€15.5 billion debt
Altice France reported net financial debt of €23.773 billion as of June 30, 2025.
Since then, it has been restructured, bringing it down to €15.5 billion. In return, creditors’ stake rose to 45% of the capital (Patrick Drahi thus retaining a majority stake).
The group had entered accelerated safeguard proceedings in May. The Paris Commercial Court had given the green light to the debt restructuring in August. The operation paved the way for the sale of SFR.
In the first half of 2025, Altice France posted revenue of €4.746 billion (-7.1% versus the same period in 2024). Of which:
- €1.294 billion in the residential fixed segment (-4.6%)
- €1.636 billion in the residential mobile segment (-10.6%)
- €1.43 billion in the business services segment (-5.7%)*
Operating income fell by 25.3%, to €645.6 million, despite a clear reduction in purchases and subcontracting. There was also, to a lesser extent, a reduction in other operating expenses (driven in part by automating customer service with AI based on Gemini). Net loss stood at €368.3 million.
* The business services segment includes revenues from renting the network infrastructure to other operators. It also encompasses datacenter activities, the production and distribution of content, customer and technical services, as well as the construction of FTTH networks.
