The discussions initiated nine months ago between Orange and the government have taken a more formal turn. This Tuesday, March 12, Christel Heydemann, general director of the operator, signed an agreement with the State aimed at accelerating the deployment of optical fiber. This signing took place during a visit by Marina Ferrari, Secretary of State for Digital Affairs, to an Orange technical building in Dunkirk.
This agreement comes at the right time as the objective of generalizing fiber throughout the country by 2025, a commitment made by President Emmanuel Macron, seems to be called into question. For almost a year, the pace of deployments has run out of steam. Recently, the new general manager of Orange France, Jean-François Fallacher, declared that this 100% fiber objective was impossible to achieve.
“Resume deployments as soon as possible”
The aim of the agreement therefore aims to “ resume deployments as quickly as possible, targeting in particular the 55 communities of municipalities and urban areas where the accumulated delay has been the greatest. » In these least well covered public intermunicipal cooperation establishments (EPCI), Orange plans to connect at least 140,000 premises by the end of 2024.
Furthermore, Orange is committed to achieving 98.5% deployment of fiber optic infrastructure by the end of 2025 compared to 88% today in medium-dense areas known as AMII (Call for expression of investment intention ). This corresponds to 1.2 million additional homes to be connected.
In very dense areas (ZTD), namely large cities where the slowdown in deployments is particularly noticeable, the incumbent operator is committed to a deployment rate of 96%, still on the same deadline, compared to 91.8%. at the end of 2023. That is to say around 300,000 more households connected.
Orange, already sanctioned for breach of its commitments
This agreement represents a consensus and ratifies a form of renunciation in relation to the commitments previously made by Orange in 2018. In November, the operator was also fined 26 million euros by Arcep, the telecoms sector supervisory authority; for non-compliance with the objectives set in the deployment of optical fiber in the AMII zone.
Scalded, Arcep intends to be vigilant regarding the proper respect of these new commitments on the part of Orange. In a non-binding opinion, including Context publishes a project, the regulator estimates that they could “ lead to progress compared to the operational situation currently observed in the AMII zone. »
However, Orange’s proposal includes, in the eyes of Arcep, ” important limitations », such as capping the number of connections on demand – i.e. requests made by subscribers – at 3% of the total number of buildings declared connectable. Finally, the Authority intends to ensure that deployments have been carried out in the areas concerned before January 31, 2026, the date of the commercial closure of the copper network which supports ADSL.
In an interview given to Dauphiné Libéré, Marina Ferrari (photo) also brandishes the threat. “ We will control [l’accord] in two phases, end of 2024 and end of 2025, with sanctions if the objectives are not achieved. It is not only my word as a minister that I commit, it is also my word as a local elected official: I noticed what happened in my department, particularly in the AMII zone: these dysfunctions are not acceptable. » Including act.