Auditioned in the Senate on Wednesday, Xavier Niel reacted at length to the plan put in place by Orange to tend towards the closure of the copper network. For the boss of Free, you have to kick the anthill.
The founder of the Iliad group and the FAI Free, Xavier Niel, answered questions from the Senate’s Economic Affairs Committee, Wednesday, March 22, during a session during which he castigated Orange about the slowness of the extinction, however scheduled (for 2030 at the latest) of the incumbent operator’s copper network. The businessman denounced problems on the conditions envisaged for the shutdown of copper, which are not satisfactory, with an overly extended timetable “.
Xavier Niel wants to shake up Orange (and the “irreducible”)
The shutdown of the copper network is supposed to be done gradually, to definitively switch to an era of fiber optics for the fixed Internet. Except that things are not progressing as Xavier Niel would like. Before attacking Orange, Free’s father returned to the root of the problem: the state of mind of those he calls ” the irreducible “.
Many French people, who live in particular in more remote areas or who are among the oldest, remain attached to ADSL, ” because for them it works well and they are afraid to change “. Xavier Niel would like things to go faster, and for that, there are not thirty-six solutions: ” The only times it works is when you say “tomorrow, there won’t be any more copper, we’ll have to switch to fiber optics” “, explains the billionaire.
” Collectively, we must have a goal, which is to turn off this copper network as quickly as possible, already because it will reduce the environmental impact; and that it will optimize the investment “, he adds, while denouncing the strategy of the market leader operator.
Reduce the increase in unbundling prices to one year, to urge Orange to close its copper network
” We find that Orange is proposing an unambitious plan, with technical volume closures that begin long after the commercial closure. That is to say that we continue to sell access and that we continue to let them live. At the speed offered by Orange, half of the copper lines in France will still be in operation. We don’t understand what quickly prevents us from turning off big cities », takes offense at Xavier Niel.
Orange is offering today and until 2025 a transition phase which consists of carrying out experiments with some, before the technical closure planned for the years 2026 to 2030. It is a mistake for the country to leave 5 years between the moment when we say “we are going to close an area” and the moment when we are really going to close it “Says Xavier Niel, who regrets that the unbundling tariffs have increased, unbundling which, let us recall, allows alternative operators like Free, in exchange for an allocation (therefore increasing), to access the copper network. Xavier Niel thus asks that the increase in unbundling only take place one year before the closure of the network. This would put the operators on a more equal footing, and would further pressure Orange in its closure of the copper network. Incidentally, the owner of Iliad denounced an ARCEP today ” fully committed to the cause of Orange “, on this file in any case.
For the boss of Free, “ there is no reason to increase the unbundling rate “, adding that Orange was taking advantage of a ” obsolete technology to afford an opportunity rent, as long as the operator is not forced to go faster. ” If Orange receives more revenue for copper, it is not motivated to close its networks “, adds the leader, specifying that the ADSL offer at Sosh (the low cost operator of Orange) was sold 10 euros less than that in optical fiber. ” Allowing deregulation is a mistake insists Mr. Niel, also recalling that Europe was asking for stabilization on unbundling rates. ” Our vision is simple: stopping copper must be accelerated “, he concluded on this question.
Source : Senate
100