Teams from Bird & Bird, Kramer Levin Naftalis & Frankel and Darrois Villey Maillot Brochier have advised SFR and Bouygues Telecom on setting up pooling of their mobile networks, completed on 31st January with signature of a sharing agreement. The purpose of this agreement is the pooling of the operators’ networks over part of metropolitan France through a Ran Sharing agreement in particular, and creation of ajoint-venture company in charge of managing the shared radio sites.

This historic sharing agreement is the first of its kind in France.

SFR was assisted by Bird & Bird. Bouygues Telecom by Kramer Levin Naftalis & Frankel (Corporate M&A and network sharing agreements) and Darrois Villey Maillot Brochier (Competition).

SFR was advised by Bird & Bird's Frédérique Dupuis-Toubol (Telecoms), who co-ordinated the project in which the following Bird & Bird partners were also involved; Stéphane Leriche (Network sharing agreements), Gildas Louvel (M&A/ Corporate), Claude Lazarus and Julie Catala-Marty (Competition), Laurence Clot (Tax Law). The partners were assisted by Julie Ruelle (Counsel, Commercial/ IT Group), Astrid de Longvilliers (Associate, Commercial/ ITGroup), Fabien Nahum and Victoria Régis (Associates, Corporate), Annabelle Gantelmi d'Ille (Associate, Competition) and Coralie Dedieu (Associate, Tax Law).

From SFR, Marie-Georges Boulay managed the team in charge of the project, composed of Gauthier Duruisseau (Director of Operator Contracts and Public Law), with the assistance of Ghislaine Brenas and Julien Linsolas, and led the contractual negotiations for the whole project. Marie-Georges Boulay and Loïc Taillanter were in charge of regulatory and competitive aspects, Isabelle Tanguyin charge of tax questions and Jérôme Lehmannof M&A and Corporate aspects.

Bouygues Telecom was advised by:

    Kramer Levin Naftalis & Frankel with a team composed of Christophe Gaschin (Partner), assisted by Ramona Tudorancea (Associate) and Séverine Gallet (Associate) for Network Sharing Agrements and Corporate /M&A aspects.
    Darrois Villey Maillot Brochier with Didier Théophile (Partner) for Competition aspects.

Moreover, within Bouygues Telecom, Anne Friant (Legal DirectorContracts), assisted by her team, led the contractual negotiations for the whole project. Clémentine Baldon was in charge of competition aspects.