French postal service La Poste is considering becoming an MVNO, and is this week on the search for a surrogate network operator.
The company said it was simply consulting at this stage, and may decide not to proceed depending on the outcome of the talks, Trading Markets reported.
French financial news site Les Echos claimed La Poste plans to offer both pre-paid and post-paid mobile services using its own brand. The company has a network of around 17,000 post offices through which to sell the services.
La Poste separately launched a secure cloud-based storage service for businesses, which will allow customers to store email, invoices, bank statements and pay slips in a single location. A free version for consumers is planned for mid-April.
In another example of European companies expanding their portfolios into non-traditional areas, Hungary's Magyar Telekom has announced plans to enter the domestic retail energy market.
The company will resell natural gas and electricity through its sales network to existing and new customers, Magyar Telecom told Hungary's Real Deal.
That will allow Magyar to launch multi-service offerings consisting of telecom services bundled with electricity and gas.
The first services under the new plan will be offered to selected residential and business customers from April.