Origins SFR was founded in 1987 in order for its then-parent company
Compagnie Générale des Eaux (CGE) to start offering a
1G mobile phone service using the modified Nordic telecommunications standard
NMT-F, to be operated in competition with the then-telephony incumbent
France Télécom's
Radiocom 2000 network. SFR also became the second French mobile network operator (after
France Télécom) to launch
2G GSM services, which it did on 15 November 1992.
SFR-Cegetel (1996–2005), then SFR (2005–2014) In 1996, CGE spun off SFR and all its other telecommunications activities into a new holding company called SFR-Cegetel (later just ), which also became a competing provider of fixed-line telecommunication services, as well as a major
ISP and a shareholder of the French operations of
America Online (AOL), as part of AOL's European operations which AOL of the United States ran as a joint venture with the German conglomerate
Bertelsmann.
Vodafone had a 44% share in SFR until April 2011, when it sold its entire share back to SFR's founding parent company
Vivendi. SFR is a major partner network of Vodafone in France.
Patrick Drahi era Numericable-SFR Group (2014–2016) Vivendi announced in March 2014 that it planned to sell its SFR division. On 14 March, it announced that it would enter exclusive negotiations with
Altice/
Numericable, to the exclusion of
Bouygues and
Iliad.
SFR Group (2016–2018) In April 2016, the Numericable-SFR Group, now chaired by former
Alcatel-Lucent CEO
Michel Combes, announced it was renaming itself "SFR Group" and a new organization with three divisions: • the media (SFR Média) and advertising sales (SFR Publicité) parts headed by
Alain Weill ; • the telecoms branch (SFR Télécom) steered by Michel Paulin. SFR acquires 49% of
NextRadioTV (the
BFM and
RMC channels) and the activities of
Altice Media Group France (the French press titles
Libération and ''
L'Express'') from
Altice, its main shareholder, for around 600 million euros. On May 25, 2016, SFR announced that it had finalized the acquisition of
Altice Media Group France, and on May 12, 2016, SFR's takeover of Altice's stake in
NextRadioTV was finalized. In December 2016,
Altice sold SFR Belux to
Telenet. SFR was merged in
Belgium with
Telenet on 31 March 2019, and SFR Luxembourg merged with Eltrona on 1 April 2020. In January 2017, SFR announced its intention to acquire 100% of the News Participations and
NextRadioTV, a process finalized in April 2018. On May 23, 2017,
Altice, parent company of SFR, announced its intention to rebrand all of the group's telecom subsidiaries as "Altice". The aim for Altice is to replace the group's historic local brands such as
Portugal Telecom, as well as
Optimum, and
Suddenlink in the US under a single international brand and to re-invoice local subsidiaries (including SFR) for its use. As far as SFR is concerned, the actual changeover was initially scheduled for June 2018, but did not take place. On November 9, 2017,
Patrick Drahi set up a new governance with
Alain Weill as CEO. Its aim is to "determine the group's strategic, operational, commercial and technological direction, and its execution", following the difficulties encountered by the group.
Altice France (2018–) Reorganizations following difficulties In January 2018, with the announcement of the spin-off of its shareholder,
Altice was renamed Altice Europe and was then made up of SFR Group, Altice International and Altice Pay TV, which holds the broadcasting rights acquired by SFR. On February 9, 2018, SFR Group is renamed "Altice France". On April 20, 2018, the French regulatory body CSA authorized the takeover of
NextRadioTV by Altice France, with Altice France becoming the #1 player in telecom-media convergence in France. On May 24, 2018, we learn that the entire NextRadioTV group is moving to join SFR in a gigantic complex in Paris in the fall. On November 30, 2018,
Altice Europe announced that Altice France had reached an exclusive agreement to sell 49.99% of the capital of SFR FTTH, the structure housing SFR's fiber network assets outside major cities, to an investor group comprising
Allianz Capital Partners,
Axa Investment Managers Real Assets and
OMERS Infrastructure for 1.8 billion euros. This values SFR FTTH at 3.6 billion euros, while retaining 100% ownership of its cable network (nine million outlets) and its 2.5 million fiber outlets in high-density areas. This agreement is in line with Altice Europe's debt reduction strategy and will enable it to make savings, since SFR FTTH will only include one million fiber outlets at the end of 2018, and will have to build as many each year to reach five million outlets by the end of 2022. In May 2020, the unions were warned of a forthcoming savings plan in the media branch. The free sports news channel RMC Sport News will cease broadcasting on June 2, 2020. In 2020, with the approval of the
European Commission, SFR FTTH acquired Covage to become
Orange's main infrastructure competitor in France. In February 2021, Altice France announced the sale of its majority stake in Hivory, which manages 10,500 telecom towers, to the Spanish group
Cellnex, for an enterprise value of 5.2 billion euros. In March 2021, SFR FTTH changes its name to XP Fibre. In March 2021, Altice France announced the reduction of 1,700 jobs, including 400 in SFR stores, partly as a result of the drop in footfall linked to Covid-19, with the remainder of job cuts affecting a wide range of activities (Consumer, Network, B2B, Human Resources). In June 2021, Altice France acquires the French virtual operator Prixtel, for an undisclosed sum. In September 2021, Altice France announces the acquisition of French virtual operator Coriolis Télécom for 415 million euros. In May 2022, Altice France also announces the purchase of SYMA. Mesrop Yeremian, founder of SYMA, takes over as head of Altice France's Mobile Virtual Network Operator (MVNO) division.
Financial difficulties and sale of 45% of the group At the end of 2022, the telecom operator commissioned the U.S.-based investment bank
Perella Weinberg Partners to sell 92 data centers, a sale expected to be worth around one billion euros. On November 21, 2023, Altice France sold 70% of
UltraEdge, a division of SFR Business comprising its 257 data centers, to
Morgan Stanley Infrastructure Partners for 530 million euros. On September 3, 2024, SFR suffered a data leak that included the
IBAN. The number of customers affected is unknown. In February 2025, the main shareholder of Altice France and the
Altice Group,
Patrick Drahi, negotiated a reduction in Altice France's debt from 24 billion to 15.5 billion euros in exchange for the sale of a 45% stake to Altice France's creditors. The financial model developed for the SFR acquisition (purchase on credit) has been repeated for each external growth operation. Over the years, Patrick Drahi accumulated debt, but the scaffolding worked because interest rates were low, the profitability of the acquired companies was higher than the cost of the debt, and the financial community trusted Patrick Drahi to refinance his debt. But in 2022, the structure will come crashing down: the central banks' decision to raise interest rates. Average rates in the
Altice Group will then be 10%. At the same time, subscriber attrition is driving down the profitability of the group's companies. ==Slogans==