Bouygues Telecom outlined ambitions to establish itself as France’s second-largest mobile operator by 2026, as part of an aggressive growth strategy across its business over the next five years.

In a plan named Ambition 2026 presented at its Capital Markets Day, Bouygues Telecom put the target on SFR, the country’s second-largest operator by mobile connections at end Q4 2020 based on GSMA Intelligence figures, stating it wanted to boost coverage from around 28,000 mobile sites in 2023, to 35,000 in 2025.

Bouygues Telecom also plans to quadruple its network capacity by 2026.

To achieve this, the operator will look to use a recent acquisition of EIT, an alternative provider offering internet, TV and MVNO services, which gave it an additional 2 million customers.

It also said it would benefit from an extended distribution network through a long-term partnership with French bank Credit Mutuel, which will distribute the operator’s fixed and mobile products, and services in more than 4,200 bank branches.

But GSMA Intelligence data showed Bouygues Telecom has something of a mountain to climb to get the coveted second spot: at end-Q4 2020, it sat in fourth place on 12.2 million mobile connections, compared with Iliad (13.5 million), SFR (17.7 million) and Orange (23.6 million).

Expansion
In a statement outlining its plan, Bouygues Telecom explained it believes the French market was primed for a new phase of growth between 2021 and 2026, driven by 5G, fibre and a growing need for connectivity across businesses and consumers which has been amplified by the Covid-19 (coronavirus) pandemic.

“Mobile use increased 1.5-times between 2018 and 2020 and is likely to double between 2020 and 2023 and double again between 2023 and 2026. In this context, Bouygues Telecom believes it is the right time to step up its growth,” the operator stated.

Other targets of its strategy include an aim to generate €7 billion in sales from services in 2026, up from around €4.9 billion in 2020.

It also wants to double market share in fixed B2B and gain an additional 3 million FTTH customers.