On 26 June, Bouygues Telecom announced that it had "signed an exclusive agreement with Euro-Information, a Crédit Mutuel group company, with a view to acquiring 100% of the capital of its subsidiary Euro-Information Telecom (EIT) and entering into an exclusive distribution partnership". Little known to the general public, this operator markets its packages under the Crédit Mutuel Mobile, CIC Mobile, NRJ Mobile, Auchan Telecom or Cdiscount Mobile brands. Existing since 2015, it has its own core network and agreements as a virtual operator with Bouygues Telecom, Orange and SFR.

An agreement that "is fully in line with Bouygues Telecom's growth strategy". EIT is France's leading alternative operator with a distribution network of "more than 4,200 Crédit Mutuel local branches and CIC bank branches, 30,000 customer advisers" and a customer service team of more than 550 people.

As a reminder, Bouygues Telecom claimed a fleet of mobile rate plans excluding MtoM of "11.7 million customers at the end of March 2020" while Euro-Information Telecom announced that it had passed the "2 million customer mark" at the end of November 2019. A purchase that could therefore enable Bouygues Telecom to come back neck and neck with Free Mobile and its 13.3 million subscribers.

It is also specified in the press release that "the acquisition price includes a fixed portion of 530 million euros payable at closing and an additional portion of between 140 and 325 million euros, subject to the achievement of economic performance criteria and payable over several years".

Subject to the agreement of the competent authorities, the operation should be finalised by the end of 2020.

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Source : Nextinpact

Submitted to Parliament and presented on 25 June at an online press conference, this new edition of the report on the state of the Internet in France sets out the key developments in the various components of the fixed and mobile Internet networks for 2019.

The aim is to ensure, through regulation, that the Internet continues to develop as a common good in which the user is the ultimate arbiter.

An entire chapter is devoted, for the first time, to the issue of the environmental impact of digital technology. A first step towards a "green barometer" that Arcep wishes to set up to make available to the public the most relevant data on the environmental footprint of networks, terminals and uses.

Although this is a report on 2019, the Arcep also details its observations and the first lessons learnt from the period of the health crisis and the spring 2020 containment, which had a strong impact on network uses.

Other issues such as quality of service, data interconnection, the transition to IPv6, net neutrality, the opening of terminals and the role of platforms are also addressed in this report. 

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Source : Arcep

Fibre optic cables, data transfer and storage stations and power plants form a vast network of physical infrastructure that underpins Internet connections.

Recent research shows that a large part of this infrastructure will be affected by rising water levels in the coming years. After mapping the Internet infrastructure in the United States, scientists overlayed it with maps showing sea level rise. Their results: in 15 years, thousands of kilometres of fibre optic cables and hundreds of other critical infrastructures are at risk of being overwhelmed by the waves. Still according to the researchers, the extra few centimetres of water could plunge nearly 20% of the U.S. Internet infrastructure underwater.

"Much of the existing infrastructure is located just off the coast, so it doesn't take much more than a few centimetres of water to get it underwater", says Paul Barford, a scientist at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, and co-author of the study: The network was deployed 20 years ago, when no one thought that sea levels could rise.

The physical structure of the Internet network has been installed somewhat randomly and often opportunistically along power lines, roads or other major infrastructure in recent decades when demand has exploded.

While scientists, designers and companies have long been aware of the risks posed by rising water levels on roads, subways and power lines, no one has so far been interested in the consequences that this could have on the physical Internet network.

"When you consider how interconnected everything is today, protecting the Internet is crucial", says Mikhail Chester, director of the Resilient Infrastructure Laboratory at the University of Arizona. Even the smallest technical incidents can have disastrous consequences. He continues "this new study reinforces the idea that we must be aware of the state of these systems, because it will take a long time to update them".

Rich Sorkin, co-founder of Jupiter Intelligence, a company that models climate-induced risks, says, "We live in a world designed for an environment that no longer exists". And concludes by saying that "accepting the reality of our future is essential - and this type of study only underlines the speed with which we will have to adapt".

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Source : National Geographic