...Although Orange is the incumbent in its French home market, holding the No. 1 position in terms of revenues, subscribers, fiber coverage, and fixed-mobile convergence, competition remains intense. Consolidation discussions in France are likely to continue in 2019 and could improve Orange's market prospects, but we consider that a conclusion remains highly speculative for now, and assume no transaction in our base case. Competition has also lowered growth prospects in Spain, which in turn affords less leeway to offset intense competition in other service areas like Poland, where Orange faces stiff fixed-line competition from cable, and from Play in mobile. We expect that the switch to International Financial Reporting Standard 15 (IFRS15) will further limit Orange's reported 2018 growth to about 0.4%, but that the impact will moderate in 2019, resulting in growth of about 1%....
