The French Telecoms Federation (which brings together Orange, SFR and Bouygues Telecom) and Free have decided to join forces to propose complementary measures to strengthen the quality of the fiber optic network. The idea is to allow better development of the network, for more reliability and transparency.
If optical fiber continues to attract more fans in France, with 19.8 million subscribers at the time of writing these lines, difficult to say that this important project took place in the best conditions. For several years now, customers, elected officials and relevant institutions such as Arcep have been calling on operators to mobilize to improve the deployment of the fiber optic network.
In 2022, the Avicca association, via the voice of its president the senator of Ain Patrick Chaize, initiated procedures to make operators face their responsibilities. In August 2023, the Minister of Digital Transition Jean-Noël Barrot announced that a law could soon see the light of day to force operators to ensure the quality of installations. The idea being to put an end to wild connections and installations carried out in haste.
Faced with this widespread frustration, the French Telecoms Federation (which brings together SFR, Orange and Bouygues) and Free have decided to join forces. In a press release published on September 28, 2023, the FTT first recalls the initiatives already put in place by players in the sector, to fight in particular against defects (establishment of skills grids, monitoring and control of interventions, recovery plans for accident-prone and damaged networks).
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The FTT and Free propose new measures to improve the deployment of fiber
Once this assessment was carried out, the FTT and Free suggested additional measures to guarantee better network reliabilitybut also for “increase transparency on the quality of networks through new indicators provided by CBs (editor’s note: commercial operators)”. Here is what they offer in detail:
- In accordance with ARCEP’s requests, establish performance measures for commercial operators, at the level of each network concerned. To do this, the authority could use certain indicators such as customer perception or others relating to their own industrial processes.
- Increase criminal penalties against perpetrators of acts of vandalism
This last point is of particular importance for the FTT and the operators. For good reason, we do not count less than 70 acts of vandalism per day on French digital infrastructures. These deliberate damages only slow down and hinder the smooth running of operations. “The telecoms sector once again affirms, with this partnership approach, its desire to collectively find solutions for all users. concludes the FTT.