It is the chronicle of an announced death. Deployed from the 1970s, the Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) is coming to the end of its life (Read the ZDNET file: End of the ‘PSTN’ landline telephone: the next deadlines and the advantages of “all IP”. Obsolete, slow and expensive to maintain, the copper network is being advantageously replaced by fiber optics.With the end of the famous T-socket, individuals and businesses alike are called upon to end their analog telephony and ADSL subscriptions to switch to the world all IP.
If the total exit of copper is planned in 2030 for an end of subscription of commercial offers in xDSL from January 2026, the technical stop of the RTC will be done gradually by batches of “plates”. Each plate corresponds to “a group of municipalities and / or districts located in the same department”, explains the French Federation of Telecoms in an educational document.
Rennes, Vanves and Saint-Leu in lot 1
The shift will soon become a reality for the inhabitants of 162 metropolitan and overseas municipalities. The incumbent operator, Orange, has drawn up the list of municipalities concerned by lot 1 and that Avicca, an association which brings together communities “engaged in digital technology” has made public on its site. Among the Avicca identity operators, it is mainly Axione, Altitude Infra and Orange that will be in charge of this first batch.
Impossible, of course, to list all the municipalities in question. According to the count made by the Ariase site, some 386,000 households are affected in 23 departments. There is a fairly equitable distribution on the territory with nevertheless a predominance of the departments of Hauts-de-France and the Great West.
The same is true for the ratio between rural municipalities, moderately dense areas and urban areas. Eight municipalities exceed 10,000 inhabitants, including Rennes (partly concerned), Saint-Leu (Reunion), Vanves (92) or Guyancourt (78). To find out if your municipality is subject to the upcoming copper shutdown, you can consult the interactive map put online by Orange.
The municipalities selected were not chosen at random. According to Avicca, 104 municipalities out of the 162 are fully connectable to fiber. The association “is nevertheless surprised by the presence of 30 municipalities that are much less well covered, one of them only reaching 87% of connectable premises. Even if these municipalities are apparently limited in number, they are almost of 8,000 premises that remain to be deployed before considering closing the copper network there.
On the occasion of the wishes of Arcep, the regulatory authority for the telecoms sector, its president, Laure de La Raudière was clear on this point: “to want to close the copper network, it is also necessary that the deployments of fiber optic networks are completed. However, we have noticed for several months that, even if the overall volume remains high, due to deployments in public initiative zones in particular, it is slowing down worryingly in less densely populated initiative zones. private and in very dense areas.”
Take into account those who resist change
In addition, Avicca notes that “the first returns from the experiments show that the number of refractory to the change of technology is anything but insignificant. Similarly, certain sockets, in particular with regard to professional premises, are insufficient in number”. Why thus “to be encumbered from the beginning with thousands of potentially problematic premises to be connected” questions the collective.
The return of the pilot cities is, in this respect, interesting. According to the testimony of the mayors of two municipalities in Yvelines, Voisins-le-Bretonneux and Lévis-Saint-Nom, collected by L’Usine Digitale, the changeover took place in good conditions.
Perhaps even more so than individuals, the issue of migration is particularly sensitive for companies. An audit phase may be necessary to establish a master plan. On the occasion of the switch to all-IP, some companies will have to put away their old automatic switch (PABX) and non-compatible terminals to wire and equip themselves with new ones.
It will also be a question of defining the innovative services towards which to evolve, such as unified messaging or the interactive voice server (IVR). A good dose of anticipation will therefore be required, all the more so since specialized operators and service providers are likely to be in great demand as the deadline approaches.