Good Deal

Mar 16, 2023

March 16, 2023 The deployment of optical fiber on the national territory took place quickly thanks to the framework of the very high speed France plan which planned to cover 80% of the population by 2022 and all by 2025. The bulk of the deployment has been carried out at a steady pace, but the end of the project is struggling to materialize. Arcep, regulator of the telecoms sector, was concerned not long ago about the slowdown in the efforts of operators on certain less dense (and more difficult to connect) portions of the territory, while the initial poor workmanship continues to severely penalize certain regions, officially covered but whose customers are experiencing many setbacks. However, this slowdown in fiber rollouts is detrimental to the closure of the copper network and ADSL lines which are starting now and will be complete by 2030. The remaining ADSL subscribers will have to be switched to fiber offers, but how can this be achieved if the connections are not made on time? Hence the proposal by some elected officials to create a new pactor deal, to frame the last part of the deployment of fiber, as there was a new deal in mobile telephony in 2018 to cover white areas. A Good Deal to end the fiber deployment well Patrick Chaize, LR senator from Ain and president of Avicca, joined forces with Philippe Le Grand, president of InfraNum, to request the establishment of a “ Good Deal ” on the fiber which would make it possible to finalize the construction site of the deployment but also to correct the problems of the existing installations. This pact should make it possible to meet the promises of the France Very High Speed ​​Plan with the “effective connection to the optical fiber of all the accommodations“, “ensure a rapid and peaceful migration of French people to fiber by setting up a national support structure for the closure of the Orange copper network“, or “provide financial support to individuals for their possible fiber access work in private areas“. Other measures want to cover broader and economic aspects such as the formalization of network life investments (increase in capacity, pruning, diversion, burial, etc. ), laying down the framework “ensuring the quality and sustainability of networks“in time and”make optical networks true critical infrastructures“. Will the government stand apart? For Philip the Great, “without additional measures, the France Very High Speed ​​Plan could remain incomplete for a long time and present certain weaknesses“and it’s a”global approach“involving operators, communities, regulators and government which could constitute this Good Deal, in exchange for example for a redesigned taxation of telecoms and a strong common strategy rather than public and private actions carried out”in scattered order” and sometimes according to “contradictory logics“. It should be noted that the government is already trying to manipulate the carrot with operators by playing on the possibility of modulating the taxe IFER paid on each pylon and antenna support in exchange for an additional effort to complete the fiber optic site.