SFR

SFR (an orphan acronym of Société Française de Radiotéléphonie) is a French mobile phone company. It has over 20 million customers, and provides over 4.6 million households with high-speed internet access. It also offers services on the island of Réunion through SRR (Société Réunionnaise du Radiotéléphone) although the company is branded as SFR Réunion. SFR is currently 100% owned by the French group Vivendi. The SFR mobile phone network infrastructure was built by the mobile phone giant Vodafone, who previously had a 44% share in SFR until April 2011 when it sold the entire share back to Vivendi. In 2006, along with Bouygues Télécom and Orange SA, SFR was ordered to pay €535 million in fines for the formation of an illegal cartel. SFR, which owns 40.5 percent of Neuf Cegetel, offered to buy the rest of the first fixed alternative operator in 2007 for €4.5 billion. The goal was to challenge France Telecom in the market for combined fixed-line, internet, and cellphone services, and to create the biggest, strongest non-incumbent in Europe, according to the group's statement.