BlogThe "telecoms war"
In France, tower companies Cellnex, TDF and Totem lease land to erect masts on which telecom operators, such as Orange, Bouygues, SFR, and Free, place antennas to broadcast signals to their end customers. Valocîme aims to become a tower company that distributes value more fairly between landowners and telecom operators, according to its website.
After it acquires the lease rights to land, it typically offers to buy the infrastructure from the current tower company, often Cellnex or TDF once a lease expires. Valocîme claims to have acquired 2,700 lease rights from incumbent tower companies.
Since moving towers to new sites is rarely an option, Cellnex and TDF are in a weakened position when it comes to renegotiating lease rights. Approximately 400 of the acquired leases have expired. Valocîme proposed to Cellnex and TDF to buy their infrastructure at its "construction price". This "speculative" behaviour of Valocîme has prompted Cellnex and TDF to oppose the offer, prompting Valocîme to file a total of 250 lawsuits so far. For 43 of those suits, courts have ordered Cellnex and TDF to cede control of the infrastructure to Valocîme. Valocîme decided to cut power on the masts of 10 sites in December 2024, leading to network disruptions for customers.
source: Euroactive