As of December 2015, SFR had 21.9 million customers inMetropolitan Francefor mobile services and it provided 6.35 million households with high-speed internet access.[3]
SFR Beluxoperated inBelgiumas a cable operator and MVNO in some communes ofBrussels Region,and in some areas ofLuxembourg(asSFR Luxembourg). The division was sold to rivalTelenet(owned byLiberty Global) in December 2016.
SFR was founded in 1987 in order for its then-parent companyCompagnie Générale des Eaux(CGE) to start offering a1Gmobile phone service using the modified Nordic telecommunications standardNMT-F,to be operated in competition with the then-telephony incumbentFrance Télécom'sRadiocom 2000network. SFR also became the second French mobile network operator (afterFrance Télécom) to launch2GGSMservices, which it did on 15 November 1992.
In 1996, CGE spun off SFR and all its other telecommunications activities into a new holding company called SFR-Cegetel (later justCegetel[fr]), which also became a competing provider of fixed-line telecommunication services, as well as a majorISPand a shareholder of the French operations ofAmerica Online(AOL), as part of AOL's European operations which AOL of the United States ran as a joint venture with the German conglomerateBertelsmann.
Vodafonehad a 44% share in SFR until April 2011, when it sold its entire share back to SFR's founding parent companyVivendi.SFR is a major partner network of Vodafone in France.[4][5]
Vivendi announced in March 2014 that it planned to sell its SFR division.[6]On 14 March, it announced that it would enter exclusive negotiations withAltice/Numericable,to the exclusion ofBouyguesandIliad.[6]Arnaud Montebourg,the French Minister for Industrial Renewal, triggered considerable concern when he stated that the Numericable/SFR deal was a certainty.Iliadlost 7.5% of its market value on that day.[6]
SFR having 28.6 million subscribers versus 1.7 million forNumericableand much more notoriety,Patrick Drahiannounced that SFR will replaceNumericable.In late 2015, Numericable Outremer became SFR Caraïbe. On 15 February 2016, Numericable was rebranded as SFR in Belgium and Luxembourg, with the launch of new packages and the SVOD service Zive.
In February 2016,Orange,SFR andFreeannounced the purchase of their competitorBouygues Telecom.However, negotiations for the purchase agreement fell through a few months later.[7]
In December 2016, Altice sold SFR Belux toTelenet.[8]SFR was merged inBelgiumwithTeleneton 31 March 2019, and SFR Luxembourg merged with Eltrona on 1 April 2020.
SFR TV is a television service accessible onLa Box de SFRandLa Box Fibre de SFR,which delivers television programs via the broadband internet telephone network (xDSL), high-speed internet (FTTHorFTTBfiber withinNumericable). The service was also broadcast by satellite withSFR Satavailable on theAstra 19.2°Esatellite until October 2015.
The SFR TV package includes more than 200 channels, somepay-tvchannels can be added as an option, by subscribing to a specific paid package, classified by theme (sport, youth, music, international...).
On 17 November 2015, Numericable-SFR launched its SVOD service Zive, for the Power bouquet subscribers. Zive and Power packages became SFR Play in 2016.
Altice signed an exclusive agreement withDiscoveryandNBCUniversalin December 2016. The premium movies and series TV channelAltice Studiowas launched on 22 August 2017.
The Numericable and SFR channels numbering were merged on 22 August 2017, and in 2019, the Numericable exclusive channels (MTV,Nickelodeon,J-One,Série Club,Cartoon Network...) were added to SFR ADSL offer. The brand Numericable disappeared.
RMC Sport(formerly SFR Sport) is a package of French TV channels (RMC Sport 1, RMC Sport 2, RMC Sport 3, RMC Sport 4, RMC Sport 1UHD) from the SFR Group devoted to sports. They are available for SFR,Canal+,My.TandOTTsubscribers.
In 2016, Altice acquired the rights of many sports competitions (Premier League,Liga NOS,Champions League) to form its SFR Sport bouquet. MCS, MCS Extrême and Kombat Sport were rebranded as SFR Sport 2, SFR Sport 3 and SFR Sport 5; and SFR Sport 1 and 4K were launched. The SFR Sport bouquet became RMC Sport on 3 July 2018.
RED by SFR[fr]was launched on 11 October 2011 as SFR's online-only, lower costflanker brand,in preparation for the launch ofFree Mobilethe following year.
Media related toSFR (Société Française du Radiotéléphone)at Wikimedia Commons
