Bouygues Telecom, Free, Orange and SFR are committed to simplifying access to optical fiber by providing their customers with the reference of their optical terminal socket directly in their customer area and on their bills.
This commitment was made this Thursday, November 24 jointly by the four major French telecommunications operators and under the control of Arcep. However, its application will not take place later, “from July 1, 2023” for online customer areas and “from December 31, 2023” for invoices.
By definition, the optical terminal port reference makes it possible to identify a fiber optic network port in the operators’ information systems.
This number is generally accessible on the small white box fixed to the wall, the optical terminal socket. Each reference is in principle “unique and lasting”, notes Arcep. The infrastructure operator assigns this reference to each fiber socket in its network “when connecting a room, when first subscribing to fiber” as provided by the regulator.
“A step forward for subscribers”
While other networks such as electricity and gas also use a unique reference to identify the point of delivery, this collective decision concerning optical fiber represents “a step forward for subscribers, in order to facilitate and make ordering more reliable. ‘a fiber subscription in premises that have already been connected’ underlines Arcep.
Subscribers will be able to be identified in a “certain” way and have easier access to this reference to speed up the process in the event of moving in or changing operator.
Slow fiber deployment in the second quarter
The deployment of fiber seems to be slowing down, recently alerted Laure de La Raudière, the president of Arcep, in a speech delivered at the fall TRIP of Avicca.
While the theme of the fall meeting was the major copper shutdown project, the slowdown in the deployment of fiber worries Arcep. The president of Arcep noted that on the deployment of FttH networks “the pace has slowed down in certain areas for a few months”.
“Of course, fiber deployment volumes remain very high and fiber subscription is dynamic, which is good news,” she said. Thus, fiber became the majority among HD-THD subscriptions at the end of the second quarter of 2022. Even if the pace of fiber deployments remains “high overall, Arcep has noted a” drop in recent months of around 20% in the 2nd quarter of 2022, compared to the same period of 2021″.