European telecoms group Altice on Monday named sector expert Michel Combes as its chief operating officer and as chairman of its Numericable-SFR mobile phone business to help accelerate its expansion. Combes is joining a company controlled by billionaire Patrick Drahi, who has been on a buying spree that saw his group buy Vivendi's SFR, the second-biggest French mobile firm, to create Numericable-SFR.