Free Mobile sparks French telecoms price war

Xavier Niel, the French billionaire, has embarked on an aggressive price war against France Telecom, Vivendi’s SFR and Bouygues Telecom that he says will break their stranglehold over one of Europe’s most expensive mobile phone markets. At an event in Paris to launch his Free Mobile service that drew inspiration from Steve Jobs at Apple, including cheering geeks and a promise to “liberate” the French consumer, the founder of Free Telecom unveiled a pricing strategy that he claimed would significantly undercut the incumbents.