France’s competition authority has rejected a request from Orange that a network sharing deal between SFR and Bouygues Telecom be suspended, stating that it does not pose an immediate threat to consumers.

According to Reuters, Orange is set to appeal the decision before a commercial court in Paris. The Autorite de la Concurrence said that nothing in the French incumbent’s argument highlighted a “serious and immediate impact” would result from the deal.

SFR and Bouygues Telecom signed an agreement earlier this year for the deployment of a shared network of 11,500 sites covering 57 per cent of the population. The deal is intended to provide better coverage of rural France, and does not cover the areas with the densest population.

Reuters said that Orange is particularly concerned about the 4G roaming element of the deal, and that SFR, which has been slower to build-out its own network, can benefit from Bouygues faster capital expenditure. This was countered with the argument that again the partnership does not cover major cities, and SFR will only gain an additional 20 per cent population coverage as a result.

SFR has already had its wrists slapped over inaccurate 4G coverage maps.

In addition to its appeal, Orange said that it “reserves to file further complaints if it sees SFR abusing the 4G roaming clause”.

While SFR is in the process of joining French cable operator Numericable to create an enlarged, integrated operator, Bouygues has been left on its own following the French M&A dance. While it had been linked with new-entrant Free Mobile, a surprise move by Iliad, the parent of Free, to acquire T-Mobile USA was seen as indicating that the attention has moved elsewhere.