He found reachable the rest of the objectives

On his day analysts Friday, France Telecom has "confirmed" its goal of 16,000 departures in France, or 13 of its workforce, over the period 2006-2008: 22,000 posts will be deleted, which will be partially offset by 6,000 recruitment. The Executive Director of human resources, Olivier Barberot, said having done late 2006 45 of his three-year plan. He found "reachable" the rest of the objectives.

Challenge is hard, as the primary tool used to date (early retirement at 55) stops end of 2006. Two alternatives are therefore put in place: the accompanying personal projects and part-time. It is proposed to the mothers of three children, "active services" that perform an arduous work and those who could not benefit from early retirement. Specifically, part-time will allow employees to leave two or three years prior to retirement, in affecting 70 of their salary to work part-time. Those who will leave two years before retirement can either work part-time for two years, or work full-time first year, then leave.

To this are added two devices already in place: assistance to the creation of business (which received 221 employees in 2005) and transfers to the public service. On this last point, "2006 has not been a good year, with less transfers than 2005, admitted Olivier Barberot.". "Our target for 2007 is to rise to 1,000 transfers, or the level of 2005, which seems achievable, because there are more and more offers from local communities following the LOLF". In total, swarming, partial time and personal projects "represent that 800 additional departures a year, what is feasible". According to Olivier Barberot, these new solutions cost on average a year of salary per employee (EUR 60,000 for a transfer to the public service, or 45,000 euros for a personal project or spin-off), less than PAYG schemes (200,000 euros). However, the achievement of the objectives is the price of a large decrease in recruitment (see table). Apparently the operator, faced with the difficulty to delete posts, had to arbitrate over hiring. To remedy this, it will increase the internal mobility.

Response of trade unions

These proposals were poorly granted by the unions, who demand an extension of the retirement. Friday morning, they left the negotiation on part-time. Management has therefore planned to unilaterally impose its proposals.

Outside the social dimension, the other major topic of the analysts Conference was the fiber to the premises (FTTH). Today, networks launched pilots in Paris and Hauts-de-Seine connect 500 customers (less than 1,000 expected) on 11.500 linkable homes. For the future, the single tariff of 70 euros per month will be replaced by a line: a first prize "will serve as transition with ADSL. To add optional services: simultaneous viewing of several television channels, storage and remote backup... The operator has justified the choice of the "most efficient fiber and civil engineering PON (passive optical network) technology."

France Telecom, Didier Lombard, CEO has excluded any large acquisition. In particular, the purchase of a mobile network in Britain or India was excluded. Even the Netherlands, even if the operator "is not the size" critical.

In France, the patron of the France, Louis - Pierre Wenes, promised for 2007 "keep its market share" in ADSL, and conquer "of hundreds of thousands of customers" for its Unik. Financially, France Telecom indicated that its investment will be stagnation in 2007, and its gross operating margin "almost stable". No goal of turnover was given, frustrating some analysts. Only indication, the operator provides income in the content of 400 million euros next year, a year ahead forecast. He believes in the medicine, in which he wants to make 500 million euros in revenue in 2010. Yesterday, Orange, France Telecom Mobile subsidiary, said that "nothing concrete" had been determined on a possible agreement with Google to create a mobile phone better adapted to the Web.