Optical fiber finally doubles ADSL in the number of Internet accesses in France, for the first time.
The rise of fiber optic subscriptions in France continues. In its latest electronic communications observatory on April 7, 2022, the telecoms regulator announced that the number of fiber optic Internet accesses has just exceeded for the first time that of subscriptions on the copper network, which is used for ADSL, VDSL and others.
Optical fiber finally overtakes ADSL in France
In the fourth quarter of 2021, the electronic communications regulatory authority recorded 14.5 million accesses on FttH networks, i.e. fiber optic links to the home (Fiber to the Home). In comparison, the number of high and very high speed accesses on xDSL copper networks was 14.4 million over the same period.
It is a long time ago when, in a previous observatory, the regulator indicated that optical fiber represented just half of all very high-speed fixed access in France, excluding xDSL. In 2018, end-to-end optical fiber had just under 4 million subscriptions, while overall xDSL lines had just over 20 million subscriptions.
Today, fiber optics sets the tone: ” all of the growth in the number of Internet subscriptions over the past year has come from that of end-to-end fiber optic access », comments the gendarme of the telecoms on the occasion of the exit of his observatory, on April 7th. A trend that will continue, because the copper network is losing ground.
France is in a vast technological transition with regard to fixed networks. In this context, a switch of Internet users has been underway for ten years, abandoning copper links for much more efficient solutions, based on light – data transmission is done here with light signals.
Internet access providers are the main players in this development, by extending the fiber optic network throughout the country. Moreover, a sign of the times, Orange has begun to think about the end of the copper network and, therefore, the end of ADSL, with a gradual extinction from 2023. In parallel, the whole country must be in fiber optics by 2025. In principle.
To know the state of the deployment of optical fiber near you, there is an interactive map administered by the telecoms regulator which allows you to see the situation throughout the territory and in particular the rate of connectable premises in a particular administrative division. . The data is generally one quarter behind the situation at a time T.
