Data Center POST interview with Antoine Fournier, CEO Kosc Telecom

By Managing Editor Ilissa Miller

Antoine Fournier is CEO of Kosc Telecom, the French wholesale-only CaaS provider. Since Kosc’s creation, he has driven a new vision with Connectivity as a Service, now a reality for carriers with connectivity needs in France.

At 41 years old, Antoine has developed a strong knowledge of the telecom industry through his previous experience. He was Director in Regulatory Affairs for Strategy and Economics at Colt Technology Services Group and Partner at Tera Consultants where he began his career. Antoine climbed the ranks within the international economic consulting firm while completing on an average of 20 missions a year, both in France and abroad. His telecommunication expertise was called upon to handle deployment or regulatory issues.

With ITW 2019 approaching soon, we sat down to chat with Antoine about how Kosc solves its clients’ problems and what’s on the horizon for the company.

Data Center POST, Ilissa Miller (DCP-IM) Question: What does Kosc Telecom do and what problems are you solving for your clients?

Antoine Fournier, CEO Kosc Telecom (KT-AF) Answer: Kosc Telecom is a French wholesale-only CaaS provider. In other words, we provide nationwide local access solutions in France to carriers with real-time management tools. Connectivity as a Service (CaaS) is a whole new way of delivering value to our customers and is at the core of our strategy. This is a big undertaking – but thanks to a fully integrated and automated platform available through UI & APIs, we can offer this Connectivity as a Service solution. Simply put, we have virtualised our network for our customers and they can orchestrate all their connectivity services, from eligibility check to ticketing, within the same simple user interface. Our motto is to help our customers drive their business into the digital era!

DCP-IM Q: What milestones did Kosc Telecom achieve in the past year and how will these developments help your company keep up with the demands of the quickly growing and ever-changing telecommunications industry?

KT-AF A: In three years, we have fulfilled our promises by building the first Connectivity as a Service offer in France. We have based it on three pillars: a comprehensive portfolio, an extensive nationwide network supported by an efficient and automated platform.

Firstly, through our complete portfolio, we are now providing high and very high-speed connectivity:

  • At an affordable price with our Best-Effort line (Broadband Max & Best-Effort Fibre)
  • With the best SLAs with our E-Access MEF1 line (EFM2 & E-Access Fibre)

1 Metro Ethernet Forum

2 Ethernet in the First Mile

E-Access MEF products (MEF standards-compliant) guarantees: symmetrical bandwidth at the highest speed; the highest level of security and confidentiality through a dedicated physical interface; and the highest service availability with a 4-hour guaranteed restoration time.

Secondly, in respect of our network, we are now offering the most comprehensive wholesale-only coverage with 100% of French addresses available. Among these addresses, 80% are available on-net.

Lastly, thanks to our CaaS solution, we enable connectivity on-demand and allow our clients to experience a seamless customer journey. Indeed, they can launch service eligibility, obtain quotes, submit, track and change their orders, check health status on their existing services and log trouble tickets, all within the same integrated user interface, available for all of Kosc’s broadband and fibre services.

DCP-IM Q: What are you most looking forward to accomplishing over the next year? 

KT-AF A: One of our strategic priorities for next year and the coming ones is to keep extending our on-net coverage. We started in 2016 with 15 million DSL lines, we are now offering 7 million E-Access Fibre lines and 8 million Best-Effort Fibre lines. By the end of 2019, we expect to exceed 10 million E-Access Fibre and 12 million Best-Effort Fibre lines. And we’ll keep up with that trend, in line with the French National Broadband Plan.

DCP-IM Q: What do you think is the greatest challenge in the industry and how are you working to overcome it?

KT-AF A: Automation, definitely! In this digital era, our industry must transform itself to become agile and customer centric. No one can sell digital transformation to its customers, if one hasn’t been through this transformation!

We first started to design our own core IT stack from scratch, and then we built our network around this digital platform, forming our CaaS solution as a result. This enables Kosc to offer innovative services to the wholesale business market that are reliable, transparent and easy to use. Fast and easy touch points deliver best customer return on experience.

DCP-IM Q: What would you like to accomplish at ITW 2019?

KT-AF A: Kosc Telecom is more ready than ever to provide new business opportunities to global carriers in France. That is why we are thrilled to be part of ITW 2019! We have a complete portfolio, that matches global carrier needs, thanks to the first wholesale-only coverage in France and a unique CaaS solution. Icing on the cake: a great team who understands the need for simplicity, speed and flexibility required by network on demand. So, we’d like to spread the word to all global carriers that have connectivity needs in France: why not improve your supplier portfolio by choosing the French wholesale-only CaaS provider?

DCP-IM Q: Thanks so much for sharing insights about Kosc Telecom with our readers chatting with us, Antoine. Antoine and the Kosc Telecom team will be attending ITW 2019 in Atlanta from June 23-26, 2019 at the Hyatt Regency and Marriott Marquis hotels. For more information about Kosc, please visit https://www.kosc-telecom.fr/en/. 

About Kosc

Established in March 2016, Kosc Telecom is the French wholesale-only CaaS provider. CaaS – Connectivity as a Service – is a whole new way of helping our customers grow their business. Thanks to our fully integrated, automated and unique CaaS solution (available through UI & APIs), global carriers can get access to the most comprehensive wholesale coverage in France and orchestrate their services from start to finish. With an infrastructure connecting over 200 cities nationwide, Kosc Telecom is now paving the way for fibre migration.