Photo credit: Nicolas Gouhier
No de-escalation in sight in the speckled foil battle between Orange and Arcep. According The world, the telecoms operator has carried out its threat by attacking the regulatory authority of the telecoms sector before the Council of State. He would have asked for the opening of a priority question of constitutionality (QPC) on the reason for the sanction pronounced against him by Arcep. According to the application filed by Orange, the sanction “disproportionately affects freedom of enterprise”.
About 3,000 municipalities concerned
To understand this legal tussle, you have to go back nearly a year. On March 17, 2022, Arcep issued a formal notice to the operator. The regulator accuses him of not having respected his commitments to deploy optical fiber in moderately dense areas known as Amii for “call for expression of investment intention”.
Of the approximately 3,000 medium-sized municipalities concerned such as Bourg-en-Bresse, Castres, Orgeval, Vichy or Gap (list in Excel file), Orange has undertaken to make 100% of premises “connectable” to fiber from here at the end of 2022.
Appointed CEO of Orange on April 4, Christel Heydemann contests this formal notice. Auditioned on November 30 before the Economic Affairs Committee of the Senate, she recalled that France was the country with the most fiber in Europe, with a coverage rate of more than 80%, against 30% in Germany.
Orange, “fiber locomotive in France”
For the leader, the Orange group, the locomotive of fiber in France, is no stranger to the success of the France Very High Speed plan. “60% of the catches deployed were deployed by our teams and our partners. Who invested 9 billion euros? Who supported the sector during the health crisis?”, she questioned in front of the senators.
Some two months later, Laure de la Raudière answered him by interposed speech. Hearing by the same Economic Affairs Committee of the Senate, the president of Arcep considered “problematic” “the slowdown in deployments of Orange in the Amii zone”. “It deprives some of our fellow citizens of the benefit of fiber.”
It recalled that this commitment was freely agreed to by the operators concerned, in this case Orange and SFR. “This choice was also made against the wishes of certain communities”. In addition, this slowdown “weakens the trajectory of closure of copper.”
For Laure de la Raudière, it is not responsible for announcing the scheduled end of the copper network (ADSL subscriptions) and “at the same time for stopping the deployment of fiber in the Amii zone or in very dense areas.” This is not the only criticism addressed to the incumbent operator. Laure de la Raudière mentions a lack of governance and consultation between stakeholders.
She regrets that Orange “does not rely more on the proposals made by the communities concerning the municipalities to be the subject of the first closures.” The operator must also, according to her, “much more share all the information at his disposal” to facilitate this phase of migration to all IP.
The president of Arcep says she hopes that the strategic plan which will be presented on February 16 by the new management of Orange, “will be an opportunity to rectify the situation”. Not sure that the situation will calm down by then.
A second complaint in sight
The world recalls, in fact, that a second complaint before the Council of State, must be opened concerning this time the unbundling tariff, namely the rent paid by other operators to borrow the copper network of Orange. The latter, who is in charge of the maintenance of this aging network, criticizes Arcep for not having kept its promises to increase this tariff. It is set at 9.65 euros per line and per month for the period from 2021 to 2023.
The incumbent operator is accustomed to this type of procedure. In September 2019, the CEO at the time, Stéphane Richard, had also requested the opening of a QPC against Arcep, denouncing the “legal harassment” of the telecoms policeman. He had removed it a few days later as a sign of appeasement. Will it be the same?