During a conference, the boss of Orange returned to the government’s promise to bring fiber to the entire French territory. According to him, this objective is simply impossible, since certain areas are too complicated, and therefore too expensive to connect. A statement that irritated Arcep and certain elected officials.
Not content with being the 4th European country with the best quality/price ratio for optical fiber, France is increasing its efforts to improve access to the network. In order to accelerate deployment in rural areas, the most difficult to connect, the government has already invested 150 million euros. There is also a question of facilitating access to the population, via aid of between €300 and €600 announced last year.
The objective is clear: that everyone, everywhere, can subscribe to a fiber subscription with an operator by 2025. A promise that makes some people cringe, starting with the boss of Orange himself, Jean -François Fallacher. During a conference which brought together the telecoms sector in Bourges this Thursday, October 12, the latter simply described the project as ” dream “ of the government.
Not everyone will have fiber according to Orange boss
Currently, 86% of French homes have fiber, according to Jean-François Fallacher. A number “phenomenal”, estimates the latter, but above all signs “the end of this project”. Indeed, the observation is cruel: the remaining homes are located in areas that are too complicated to connect. And who says complications, necessarily means greater investment to be made. A game that is simply not worth the effort, according to the Orange boss.
This in fact reminds us that other solutions now exist to have access to a very high-speed Internet connection. 5G to start – the antennas would still have to cover the entire territory, which is still far from being the case – or even… Internet by satellite. Coincidentally with the calendar (or not, we’ll let you judge), it turns out that Orange is preparing to launch its own satellite Internet offer. Practical.
In addition to this happy coincidence, Orange also has everything to gain from finalizing the deployment of fiber on French territory. For several weeks in fact, the operator has entered into negotiations with the executive in order to avoid the fine which threatens to hit it if the connection is not finalized on the date announced in medium-sized towns. It must be said that the historic operator only hopes to finalize the project in major cities by 2025.
Orange the anger of Arcep
Suffice to say that Jean-François Fallacher made enemies with this declaration. Starting with Arcep, in the person of its president, Laure de La Raudière, who recalled that 100% fiber is a “political objective” — unlike 5G or satellite Internet which are only solutions marketed by Orange. “The objective of the regulator is to meet this political objective”, she pointed out.
On the same subject — Optical fiber: Orange, SFR, Free and Bouygues propose new measures to improve the quality of the network
Laure de La Raudière is not the only one to react this way. Patrick Chaize, LR senator very involved in the connection mission and president of Avicca, recalled that 100% is also an inclusion objective, aiming to reduce the digital divide which is already rife in France, by not “leaving no one by the wayside”.
Still, the calculations are not really in the government’s favor. Currently, there are still 2 million homes to be connected. According to Infranum, these alone represent an investment of 3 billion euros, a far cry from the several tens of millions granted by the Élysée. Note, however, that the latter has already provided 13 billion euros since 2013, out of the 36 billion spent since the first connection.
Source: The Tribune