Google's future private transatlantic submarine cable called "Dunant", a 6,600-kilometre long cable linking the United States and France, is due to come into service by the end of 2020. Orange, a partner of the Californian giant, laid the final section in the Vendée on 13th March.

To link up with the existing terrestrial network, the cable ends in a "landing station" near a beach in the commune of Saint-Hilaire-de-Riez. This underground installation was set up in a bunker more than 10 metres underground, originally built for a NATO cable. The bunker had been dormant since 2016, when it hosted its last cable, "Eurafrica", linking France, Morocco and Portugal. Similar work will soon take place at the other end of the cable, i.e. at Virginia Beach in Virginia.

As the first cable between the United States and France in 15 years, Dunant should make it possible to cope with the sharp increase in traffic expected between Google's data centres on either side of the Atlantic.

The fiber pairs will have a capacity of 30 Tbps each, compared with 3.2 Tbps offered by the previous transatlantic cable, which has been operational since 2001. Orange will benefit from two fiber pairs.

In addition, at the end of 2019, Google inaugurated a first cable, called "Curie", between the United States and Chile. A third, "Equiano", is planned between Portugal and South Africa.

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Source : L'Usine Nouvelle

This partnership between Orange and Free - known as the "passive mutualisation agreement" - will last at least five years and aims to share and build together mobile phone masts in rural areas. In other words, the operators would share masts and their operating costs, but each would graft its own radio equipment onto them. The territories concerned are located in a so-called "priority deployment zone" (or PDZ), i.e. rural territories where mobile coverage is poor or insufficient.

In general, this type of agreement allows operators to significantly lower their costs in order to cover sparsely populated and therefore unprofitable areas. However, the stakes here are a little different for Orange.

Today, any operator wishing to deploy a new tower in the ZDP is faced with a "prior consultation obligation". He must warn his rivals to find out if they are interested in sharing the site. This obligation appeared in January 2018 during the New Deal in order to put an end to the "white" and "grey" zones. But at the time, this provision was unacceptable for Orange, which considered it ruined all these efforts to differentiate the ZDP.

The Arcep then reviewed its copy and proposed that if an operator made an offer to one of its rivals for passive pooling in ZDPs that it considered reasonable, then the obligation of prior consultation could be waived. Orange therefore asked the regulator to lift this obligation. Free made the same request, but only for sites that would be co-constructed with Orange.

For its part, the Arcep has launched a public consultation to gather the sector's opinion on this subject but also concerning a possible removal, for all players, of this obligation.

The question of the pooling of mobile infrastructures has become eminently strategic for operators with the arrival of 5G next summer. SFR and Bouygues Telecom have long shared a large part of their mobile infrastructures in less densely populated areas. A similar agreement between Orange and Free would enable them to be more competitive. This is particularly true for Xavier Niel's operator, which is forced to make greater efforts to improve its national coverage.

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Source : La Tribune

The names of the operators who will participate in the allocation of the first frequencies dedicated to 5G were unveiled by Arcep on 26 February. Orange, SFR, Bouygues Telecom and Free have therefore applied. The four major national operators will compete in an auction, scheduled to start in mid-April, to win back as many frequencies as possible. And the stakes are high: those who win the most spectrum will be able to offer a better service than the others.

For the Arcep, the fact that the four major operators have responded is a source of satisfaction. For the president of the institution, Sébastien Soriano, it proves that the conditions of this sale "are reasonable". Even if some operators have shouted the opposite in recent months, believing that the government was financially too greedy. They also felt that the spectrum came with obligations to cover the territory - especially rural areas, which are much less profitable than cities - too large and costly.

No other telecom players applied for 5G, including the large MVNOs. The same is true for industrialists in different sectors. It must be said that the allocation requires the purchase of a minimum of 40 MHz of frequencies. This measure, which aims "to avoid the fragmentation of the spectrum" explains Sébastien Soriano, has de facto "set the bar a little high" for industrialists.

Orange, SFR, Bouygues Telecom and Free, provided they comply with the required commitments, should each recover a block of 50 MHz at a fixed price of 350 million euros. 350 million. A battle will follow for the remaining 110 MHz, which will be auctioned in blocks of 10 MHz, but no operator will be able to win more than 100 MHz of spectrum in total.

The Arcep is due to determine in the coming weeks how the auctions will be conducted. Several modalities are still to be worked out.

It should be noted that during the auctions, operators will not be allowed to discuss and agree on certain common strategies among themselves, which would distort competition. If there is no change in the agenda, the regulator expects the frequencies to be allocated in June. Operators will then be able to start rolling out 5G in early summer, in July.

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Source : La Tribune

Google's 'Dunant' transatlantic cable is scheduled to go live in 2020. Orange and Telxius, a subsidiary of Spain's incumbent operator Telefonica, have announced their association in this context. On February 18, Orange and Telxius, a subsidiary of the Spanish incumbent Telefonica, announced that they have joined forces to bring a new transatlantic submarine cable into service. Owned by Google, the 'Dunant' cable will link France to the United States in 2020. Orange will have two pairs of fibre and Telxius will have just one of the twelve pairs of fibre in the cable.

They will "offer and operate collocation services in their respective landing stations" in Saint-Hilaire-de-Riez (west coast of France) and Virigina Beach (east coast of the United States), the two groups said in a joint statement. Telxius will provide Orange with a link from its landing station in Ashburn, Virginia. In return, Telxius will benefit from Orange's connections to Paris and other major cities in France.

With this agreement Orange will have more capacity between Europe and the United States. For the incumbent operator, this is an imperative to cope with the explosion of data traffic between the Old Continent and the land of Uncle Sam. For the French telecom leader, Dunant represents a significant investment amounting to several tens of millions of euros.

As part of this venture, Orange is also working with Google to provide it with terrestrial fibre optic links in France. This will enable the Mountain View giant to connect its data centres on both sides of the Atlantic. Over the past few years, it has invested in around ten of these arteries lying at the bottom of the seas, which are so essential to the smooth running of the Internet.

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Source : La Tribune

A new contract between the Region, the 4 Auvergne departments and Orange, signed 10 months ago, provides for broadband coverage of the entire Auvergne region by the end of 2020. Everything suggests that this objective will be achieved, as will the goal of making 91% of the Auvergne population eligible for fibre by the end of 2022.

In order to finance the equipment of rural areas, the Auvergne Region and the 4 departments had created a Public Initiative Network (RIP). Last year, Laurent Wauquiez renegotiated phase 3 of the RIP, getting the national operator to do "better (800 communes instead of 400), faster (2022 instead of 2025) and for less (137 million saved)".

A monitoring committee was then set up to ensure that Orange respects its commitment. It met for the second time on 7 February. Jérôme Barré, Head of Wholesale Markets at Orange, declared bluntly: "In 2019, we have hit the grand slam".

In figures: 50% more sockets connected in 2019 than in 2018, 166,000 customers already connectable, 48,000 customers connected, i.e. a penetration rate of 28%.

Since July 2019, connected households have been able to choose another operator, Free. Jérôme Barré also announced that the entire offer (with SFR and Bouygues) will be available in 2021. And this will be a first for an RIP.

On the business side, Orange is committed to "putting fibre everywhere". An offer at 250 € is proposed to them, whereas the previous tariffs were prohibitive, Laurent Wauquiez recalled.

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Source : La Montagne

A little over a year ago, Axione and the Mirova Fund created CityFast. The company had bought the 140,000 fibre optic lines deployed by Bouygues Telecom in major cities. CityFast then made a commitment to connect 3.4 million urban households by the end of 2021 and to lease this infrastructure to Martin Bouygues' operator and others.

One year later, CityFast assures to have crossed the 800,000 fiber optic lines deployed. The wholesaler will therefore move on to the next phase: the marketing of these pipes to interested operators. The multitude of regional or specialized operators supplying VSE-SMEs will then be able to offer fibre optic subscriptions in city centres at very competitive rates.

The president of CityFast, Eric Jammaron, explains "Today, it is a very closed market. A downtown law firm, for example, has a very limited choice. Either it takes an FTTH subscription from one of the major operators present in the building, without guarantees, or it goes through a corporate operator to have a dedicated fibre with a very superior quality of service, but a very expensive subscription".

The wholesaler is convinced that small and medium operators will be in a hurry to offer fibre, with or without a guaranteed recovery time, to VSE-SMEs.

"We are betting on the mass, with extremely aggressive prices," says Eric Jammaron. Today, an ADSL pro offer, with much lower speeds, sells for 60 to 80 euros. Pro fibre doesn't go below 300 euros. "CityFast will sell its FTTH lines with service guarantees three times cheaper to operators.

An argument that is not entirely convincing. Nicolas Aubé, head of Celeste, is convinced that companies will remain fond of lines just for themselves.

CityFast will quickly know what to expect. As of this week, it opens to rent its fiber lines in the 7th district of Paris, then in the other districts of the capital, as well as in Lyon and Marseille.

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Source : Les Echos

According to several telecom specialists, operators' uncertainty about whether or not to use Huawei's 5G antennas for their new mobile networks is growing.

Yet the law on securing mobile networks (nicknamed "anti-Huawei") has made things clearer. Indeed, operators must get the green light from Anssi - the National Agency for Information Systems Security - before using 5G equipment. The Agency then has two months to study their files.

At the end of December, Orange, SFR and Bouygues Telecom all submitted authorization applications for the deployment of Chinese 5G antennas in France.

However, according to several sources, cyber-experts in the French-speaking part of the country are making more and more requests for further information. It's not serious, "says a concerned operator. If they're trying to save time this way, it's a mistake. A court would never agree with them, the case law is very clear".

What operators are actually afraid of is that the Anssi is deliberately dragging its feet to avoid having to post a denial of clearance ahead of the 5G frequency allocations, scheduled for April. If equipment manufacturers were to be denied to operators before that date, the latter would then be weakened and could therefore lower their bids for the 5G auctions .

According to the new legal framework, the absence of a positive response from the Anssi within two months is tantamount to a refusal. But this time limit runs from receipt of a complete file... a complete file. Hence the irritation of the operators in front of what one actor describes as "delaying tactics" to postpone the deadline.

A specialist in the sector even indicates that "Some operators are impatiently waiting for an implicit refusal to be able to take legal action".

But the strategic interest of the four players differs. Indeed, Free, using only antennae of the Finnish Nokia, is not concerned.

Orange does not use Huawei antennas in France to date. However, it wants to have the possibility to solicit the Chinese supplier for its future 5G network.

As for SFR and Bouygues Telecom, which use Huawei on half of their respective networks, they are keen to be able to continue doing business with the Shenzhen giant. Doing without its 5G antennas would indeed require dismantling the 3G and 4G antennas for compatibility reasons. The cost would be enormous. You would have to buy and install this equipment. Above all, a large part of the network would be disrupted for many months, pushing customers into the arms of the competition. "Free would become, without doing anything, the second best network in the country... while it remains far behind" as a telecom specialist analyses.

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Source : Les Echos

From the second half of the year, the railway group will sell fibre to regional telecom operators for business customers.

On this market dominated by Orange and SFR, the arrival of SNCF should therefore make waves. The company has historically had a 20,000-kilometre fibre network that connects its 3,000 stations in particular. For years, SNCF has already been leasing access to its network to regional telecom operators too modest to build such infrastructures themselves. However, this is very long-distance "dark" fibre. The operators have to install their own equipment to bring it into service. This time, SNCF's ambition is to sell "activated" fibre, i.e. ready to use.

The group assures that it does not want to "disrupt" the market, but simply to contribute to the digital development of the region. The Very High Speed Broadband plan should generalise fibre throughout France by 2022, but today only 23% of VSE-SMEs are connected to it, according to a Covage study.

The SNCF wants to propose a premium offer with the aim of achieving profitability. "The SNCF is going to enter this market with State aid. So this project is not going to be very well received by the major operators. It's a very political issue," says one observer.

There is nothing trivial about the timing of this project. Kosc, a wholesale operator created in 2016 to shake up the Orange-SFR duopoly in corporate telecoms and which leased its fibre network to 65,000 customers, has only six months to find a buyer. In this context, small operators worried about being cut off from the Kosc network could turn... to the SNCF.

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Source : Les Echos

The mobile access network sharing agreement between Orange Belgium and its competitor Proximus has just been suspended by the Belgian Competition Authority after Telenet, the third largest mobile operator in the French overseas market, filed a complaint against it. Telenet believes that the alliance would create a giant on the Belgian telecoms market.

"Telenet understands what motivates mobile operators to want to share their mobile network, albeit within the limits of legality, but has serious questions about how far-reaching it is that Belgium's two largest mobile players want to work together in a joint venture," the management said.

All the more so as "such a far-reaching agreement between Proximus and Orange Belgium also has the effect of reducing the number of players holding mobile infrastructure from three to two", Telenet pointed out after an argument that did not leave the Belgian regulator indifferent. And that could well interest French operators.

"In view of their possible impact on competition, the Competition College requires Orange and Proximus to suspend the implementation of the shareholders' agreement and the RAN sharing agreement concluded between them on 22 November 2019, as of the date of receipt of this decision and until 16 March 2020," explained the Belgian Competition Authority at the end of last week.

The decision adopted by the Belgian Competition Authority allows Orange Belgium and Proximus to continue their preparatory work for the establishment of their future joint venture. Indeed, the Belgian regulator's decision "does not prevent the sending of RFPs for the acquisition of network equipment and the selection of employees to be transferred, if this does not lead to the conclusion of binding agreements".

However, Orange Belgium and Proximus were keen to defend their agreement finalised last November "the agreement on the sharing of the mobile access network will have positive effects for customers and for Belgian society as a whole, in particular a faster and wider deployment of 5G, a significant reduction in overall energy consumption and a total improvement of the mobile experience, while maintaining a strong differentiation between the parties in terms of services and customer experience".

As a reminder, this alliance aims to create a 50/50 joint venture between the two operators. "Although sharing their mobile access networks, the two companies will retain full control of their own spectrum resources and will continue to operate their core networks independently to ensure a differentiated customer and service experience," said Orange Belgium and Proximus at the announcement of the agreement.

The Belgian mobile telecommunications market is currently driven by three main operators: Proximus, (44% market share in 2017), followed by Orange Belgium (27%) and Telenet, (with a market share between 20 and 30%).

For several months now, various rumours have been circulating that a fourth operator is entering the Belgian market, thus introducing more competition in a market characterised by a small number of players and relatively high prices. In a study published in 2018, the Belgian regulator had itself shown itself in favour of the entry of a fourth mobile operator on the market, noting that this new competition would make it possible to lower prices and improve innovation, but at the risk of a reduction in investment, particularly in rural areas.

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Source : ZDNet

This time, let's do it! Operators who wish to launch into 5G can now apply to the Arcep for frequencies in the 3.4 - 3.8 GHz band. Operators must apply before 12 noon on February 25th 2020.

The regulatory authority will examine the applications and issue authorisations during the first half of 2020. It is expected that the four operators - Orange, SFR, Bouygues Telecom and Free Mobile - will be successful at the end of the award procedure.

As resources are limited, the real question is how many frequencies each applicant will have.

A mixed allocation system has been planned: the frequencies are divided into fixed-price lots and variable-price lots, which will be determined by auction. The fixed-price lots each contain a 50 MHz block, while the variable-price lots consist of a 10 MHz block. An operator must apply for at least 40 MHz and is not allowed to have more than 100 MHz.

Fixed price blocks are sold for EUR 350 million each. The others start at EUR 70 million.

However, the government does not intend to squeeze the candidates and a certain flexibility in the purchase of frequencies is thus provided for: the 10 MHz blocks can be paid for over 4 years and the 50 MHz blocks over 15 years - this is the duration of the allocation of frequencies. This is the duration of the frequency allocation, which may be extended if necessary.

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Source : Numerama

On 22th November last, the Arcep adopted the procedures for allocating frequencies in the 3.5 Ghz band. Two days later, the government announced the reserve price below which it did not intend to transfer the first portion of spectrum dedicated to the 5G mobile network. And the operators make a face: the floor price seems far too high to them.

4 sets of 50 MHz allocated to each of the four operators at a fixed price of 350 million euros. Then 11 blocks of 10 Mhz that they will then compete at auction, bidding 70 million euros. 2.17 billion, while Orange, SFR, Bouygues Telecom and Free did not expect this reserve price to exceed The Arcep even campaigned for a prize of 1.5 billion "grand maximum".

In an interview at Les Echos, however, Agnès Pannier-Runacher presents this amount as "reasonable". In particular with regard to the sums paid by German or Italian operators. The representative of Bercy also argued that this figure corresponds to that determined by the Commission des Participations et Transferts, which "analyses the price below which the French people's assets do not seem to him to have to be sold".

A discourse that clashed with the operational and financial reality of 5G, reacted the operators. "This decision is not consistent with what has been put forward by the government in recent months," said Arthur Dreyfuss, President of the TFF. It constantly warns the State against a price boom that would deprive operators of the means to invest in deployment afterwards. Especially since the obligations assigned to them in return for the allocation of frequencies seem too ambitious.

5G frequencies too expensive: another dispute on the road to the future mobile network. Their disagreements relate not only to the reserve price, but also to the size of fixed-price blocks, the pace of deployment, 5G hedging obligations and the duration of licences. A non-exhaustive list of demands on which the regulator is far from having satisfied the Telecom Quartet.

Against the advice of Arcep, which favoured 60 MHz blocks, the state finally opted for 50 MHz. "With 50 MHz blocks, for a total of 310 MHz, the risk is that one operator will get twice as many frequencies as another," explained Sébastien Soriano, President of the Arcep, in Le Figaro. Bouygues Telecom and Free fear that they will lose out in the deal as they are less well equipped financially to bid higher.

Iliad also called for the removal of the third milestone in the deployment of 5G sites - 12,000 at the end of 2025 - for operators who would not obtain the famous 60 MHz. Arcep did not grant this right, but this obligation has been reduced to 10,500 sites. An adjustment reflecting the many criticisms encountered by the initial schedule. This assumed an acceleration of 1,000 sites per year from 2020 to 2022 and then to 2,500/year in 2023-2024 and 4,000/year in 2025 alone.

Bouygues Telecom, Orange and Free replied that they were unplayable, citing technical, financial and administrative constraints. Operators simply do not have the means to make the "leap" of 4,000 sites initially expected in 2025, argues Bouygues Telecom. For whom, moreover, "there is also no capacitive need of this magnitude on this horizon".

8,000 sites in 2024 and 10,500 in 2025 finally but not only in urban areas. The Arcep intends to ensure that the deployment of 5G will also benefit low-density areas, in line with government expectations. The regulator initially proposed to extend this obligation to the 22,000 municipalities of priority deployment areas (PDAs) as defined by the 2015 decision on the allocation of 700 MHz frequencies.

Again, there was no unanimity on this idea. Bouygues Telecom is not going about it in four ways: "Hedging obligations are very heavy and inconsistent with the object sold". For the operator, the 3.4-3.8 GHz band is intended for uses primarily for capacity, so that its use "is not relevant in sparsely populated areas".

Also mentioned by other actors, an approach consisting in prioritizing 5G deployments on "territories that we are sure will not benefit from FttH before a date to be determined". One of the approaches mentioned by Cerema or by the Assembly of French Departments is to use fixed 5G to compensate for future deficiencies in very high wireline broadband.

Finally, the opportunity to add the ZDP perimeter to the very recent list of "Industrial Territories" is suggested by several actors: Cerema again, but also Banque des Territoires or Orange. An addition finally retained by the Arcep in its specifications.

The last point of contention on the part of operators is the granting of 5G licences for an initial period of only fifteen years, which can be extended by five years after the Arcep's assessment. The Authority considers that this period is "appropriate to the level of investment required to fulfil the obligations under the procedure". Not Orange, Bouygues Telecom and SFR: the trio believes that this will not be enough to make their investments profitable.

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Source : DegroupNews

Kosc Telecom was the solution devised by the public authorities to bring more competition to the business telecoms market. Just three years after its launch, Kosc is expected to file for bankruptcy leaving a slate of 120 million euros.

After the merger with SFR, Kosc acquired part of the activities of Numericable (Completel). Bpifrance had injected 9 million euros and OVH was also a shareholder via a contribution "in industry". The idea was to make Kosc the third man in the lucrative telecom business market, 85% owned by Orange and SFR.

In 2018, Caisse des Dépôts et Consignation had in turn promised to provide 20 million euros to Kosc. It was without counting on a grain of sand: a lawsuit lost to SFR and the threat of having to pay it 20 million euros. For the Caisse, the risk was too high and decided to withdraw from the case, leading to the fall of the telecom operator.

A new game should be played at the helm of the commercial court, with potential buyers. Indeed, the telecoms sector has evolved since 2016 and Free and Bouygues Telecom have in turn launched themselves into the business market. Bouygues' subsidiary would also be a serious candidate for the takeover of Kosc, and would therefore be favoured by OVH.

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Source : Le Figaro

According to the Financial Times, Orange is preparing to split its mobile tower business, the pylons where 3G/4G equipment for mobile phone use is installed, into a separate entity. This could be a prelude to a partial or total sale later on. A new entity that can be valued between €8 and €10.3 billion. Stéphane Richard's group has the largest number of antennas in France (15,000 in total), and one of the largest in Europe (59,000 antennas on the Old Continent, in Africa and in the Middle East).

Orange will inform about its projects during its investor day scheduled for December 4, according to sources in the Financial Times. Its CEO stated last May that "the current appetite for infrastructure funds clearly reveals the intrinsic value of telecom networks". The French operator must ask itself the question of "maximizing the value" of its infrastructure, he said at the time.

This type of split and sale is a cash movement of telecom operators in search of cash. Last August, Free sold 70% of Iliad Tower Co. In 2018, SFR (Altice) partially sold SFR TowerCo while Bouygues Telecom initiated the movement in 2016 with two disposals for a total amount of 700 million euros.

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Source : BFM Business

Free had been involved for several years in co-financing the FTTH networks deployed by Orange and was challenging several terms of its contract with the incumbent operator. The Regulatory Authority had settled this dispute in Free's favour, but Orange had been challenging the legality of the dispute since then. The Paris Court of Appeal upheld Arcep's decision in an order dated 26th September 2019.

The planned renewal of the term and conditions of access to Orange's infrastructure was contested by Free. Arcep confirmed that they did not meet Free's needs for visibility and transparency and therefore imposed on Orange to grant a right of access for a defined period of time and at least 40 years. In its decision, the Court of Appeal confirmed that these conditions are "not sufficiently precise in view of Free's need for visibility over the effective duration of this right".

In addition, Arcep considered that it was justified and reasonable for Free to obtain information on the formation of access tariffs for Orange FTTH networks in less dense private initiative areas. This was also supported by the Court of Appeal, which stated that these tariffs were "directly linked to the financial terms of the bid, which it seeks to ensure is fair".

Finally, the Regulatory Authority considered that the incumbent operator should allow Free to connect mobile base stations in less dense areas of private initiative via the extra optical fibres of the FTTH network deployed by Orange and co-financed by Free. A point that has not been contested by Orange in its appeal.

In addition, the Paris Court of Appeal held that the decision did not affect business confidentiality and confirmed Arcep's analysis. And noting that the information that Orange must provide to Free pursuant to the decision "is characterized by a very high degree of aggregation, both geographically and by expense items".

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Source : Le Monde Informatique

CFAST, a publisher of software packages for alternative telecom operators, conducted a survey on the reasons for the shortage of female talent in the telecom sector, and more broadly in the digital sector.

In this dossier entitled "Women's telecoms: freedom, equality, parity? ", you can discover:

• a historical overview of the pioneers of the sector
• companies and associations working today for the promotion of women in the Digital age
• the portrait of professionals: their careers and actions to make things happen

Find the forum dedicated to RezoGirls by clicking here. If you wish to download the complete file, click on this link.