In its newsletter on Monday, the Arcep college published an editorial to review the implications of a recent picket by the incumbent operator. Indeed, at the end of the summer, Orange submitted a Priority Question of Constitutionality (QPC) to the Conseil d'Etat in order to challenge the telecoms regulator's power to impose sanctions. But according to the college, Orange "[challenges] the pragmatic spirit of French-style regulation". With this initiative, the incumbent operator "does not attack the Arcep so much but attacks the French regulatory model more broadly", says Sébastien Soriano, President of the Arcep.

The sanctioning power of the Arcep is vital for the proper functioning of the current regulation, the college stresses in its editorial. In particular, it would not be possible to benefit from "the commitments that operators can make on competitive or territorial coverage issues", argues the telecoms police officer. "Without control and sanctions, these commitments would only be paper," he insists.

Very upset by the initiative of the incumbent operator, Sébastien Soriano said "I am not sure that Orange has measured all the consequences". The President of Arcep says that if his power of sanction were to disappear, then France would have to choose another regulatory model. Wishing to take advantage of the "synergy between infrastructures and services", it decided to leave the incumbent operator in charge of its network for its deployments.

Sébastien Soriano explains "We felt that Orange, because of its need to win back customers in the fixed Internet, had an incentive to invest in fibre", seeing it as a "positive market dynamic. But the counterpart of this choice is that the regulator must check on a daily basis that Orange is not taking advantage of this situation by giving itself an advantage on the retail market. This is called non-discrimination. To ensure this, regular monitoring and sanction procedures are required. Without them, we would potentially be forced to choose much more radical regulatory approaches..."

And ends by correcting: "It's not a threat, it's factual".

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Source : La Tribune

The incumbent operator has submitted a Priority Question of Constitutionality to the Council of State, which can thus deprive the telecom police of its sanctioning powers and render the operators' commitments ineffective.

Unveiled on Tuesday by Le Monde, this request challenges the legal validity of a formal notice sent to it by Arcep last January. Indeed, the regulator criticized Orange for not respecting its obligations towards other telecom operators when it makes its fixed networks available to them. For the time being, this request is only at the preliminary stage. It will only be examined by the "Wise Men" of the Constitutional Council if the Council of State decides to transfer the file to it.

But in reality, it is a much broader problem. The incumbent operator argues that Arcep is both judge and party at the same time and that there is too much permeability between its three missions: to enact rules for the market, to control telecom operators and also to sanction them in the event of non-compliance with their obligations.
The regulator would de facto be deprived of its power to impose sanctions if the Conseil d'État were to rule in favour of the operator. In short, if the Arcep can no longer sanction abuses, the shipyards will fall behind and the objectives to boost French access to very high speed will not be met.

Orange assures that the procedure is a legal issue and will not affect the commitments made. The operator points out that in 2013 the Arcep has already been deprived of its power to impose sanctions in a similar procedure.
 

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Source : Les Echos

The Cloudwatt, Orange's online data hosting service, will be disconnected on February 1st. Launched in 2012, it was one of the two heads of the French-style sovereign cloud co-financed at a loss by public money. With Bercy calling again for the creation of secure data centers to host sensitive government and corporate data, this failure could serve as a lesson.

At the origin of this project, called Andromeda, France wanted to invest 150 million euros in a shared server service that could reduce the costs of ministries and companies. But here we are, the French technology groups called upon to help did not succeed in reaching an agreement and therefore shared the envelope.

On the one hand, Cloudwatt was created by Orange and Thales by adding 150 million euros to the amount provided by the State. On the other hand, Numergy was launched by SFR and Bull with the same investment. However, none of them were able to find customers. And two years after their launch, Cloudwatt claimed only 2 million dollars in revenue. Even if Numergy was doing better with 6 million billed, these are crumbs compared to Amazon, Microsoft and IBM.

Bercy stops the expenses, a few months later, by assuring that she has spent only half of the promised sums. Orange and SFR then bought back the shares of the State, one from Thales and the other from Bull. Numergy and Cloudwatt, which had then become simple brands, had since been part of the offers designed for large companies by the two telecoms operators.

Today, the dominance of American players in the online IT market continues to raise concerns about the integrity of critical data. A recent report by MP Raphaël Gauvain criticizes the Cloud Act, an American extraterritorial law recalling the Patriot Act and spy programs.

The Government should therefore sign a strategic supply chain contract to develop a "Cloud of Trust" ecosystem in the fall. Being French will not be enough to be French and some American or Chinese technologies used in French data centers will be difficult to support.

"This time, we will not assume the nationality of the actors but their ability to guarantee data integrity with regard to our laws and strategic autonomy over our essential infrastructures and data," notes Jean-Noël de Galzain, Hexatrust's president on the sector's strategic committee. In addition, the State should commit itself to playing its role as a buyer.

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Source : Les Echos

The telecoms police officer has just sent an early formal notice to Orange, SFR, Bouygues Telecom and Iliad-Free regarding the "New Mobile Deal". Indeed, Arcep considers that the commitments made by operators under this agreement, dating from January 2018, are not progressing fast enough.

At the time, the State agreed to renew part of the frequencies granted to operators for ten years and free of charge. A "gift" with a counterpart, however: the operators had undertaken to cover the territory more, particularly in the famous "white areas".

By the end of 2020, they must have converted all their existing 2G and 3G sites to 4G and improve mobile coverage on transport routes (from 2018) and inside buildings (from 2019).

But a year and a half after the signing, the regulator would find that progress was insufficient. "The regulator has no confidence in the operators, he believes that this case is dragging on," explains a source familiar with the case.

If the targets were not met by the 2020 deadline, early warning would make it possible to initiate sanctions more quickly without wasting time.

Aware that operators have always had difficulty meeting their commitments, the government has organised progress reports on the progress of the work. This was obviously not enough.

However, in June 2018, the government published the first 485 sites on which operators had to install their 4G antennas. For its part, the Arcep had launched its quarterly dashboard. But several observers had already warned of the magnitude of the task. "The deadlines were super-short. We could legitimately be concerned," recalls one participant today.

Operators, on the other hand, deny any delay. "Operators are deploying on schedule. ...] We are on the ground every day to solve administrative and technical challenges with the support of communities and government services. Arcep is welcome in the territories and will thus become even more aware of the collective success underway to finally solve the problem of white areas," said Arthur Dreyfuss, President of the French Telecommunications Federation. Summer is therefore likely to be turbulent.

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Source : Les Echos

The AOTA - Association of Alternative Telecommunications Operators - has just referred the matter to the Arcep to request the opening of Orange's fibre network. Indeed, the 47 members of the association complain that they do not have sufficient access to it and accuse the incumbent of anti-competitive practices.

Since they cannot build very expensive networks themselves covering the entire country, small operators must first "borrow" Orange and SFR networks. They therefore rent access to the two dominant players in the corporate telecom market and buy voice or data from them at wholesale prices. They then sell them to their own customers.

But here we are, alternative operators feel ousted from the market of companies that have not been able to "connect" enough to the Orange network. With 12.4 million outlets, the incumbent's fibre network is both very large and very capillary. Hanging on to it therefore makes it possible to target SMEs with connectivity needs on several sites or plants spread over the territory. It is precisely these customers who escape the more geographically limited members of the AOTA.

A long-standing problem linked to the lack of fibre regulation for professionals. Indeed, Orange is obliged to offer wholesale offers to small operators wishing to access the copper network (ADSL) but not on fibre. In 2017, Alternative Télécom had already demanded more openness.

However, it is impossible for Orange to open up to competition a network built with billions of investments. Small operators believe that the operator has been favoured by its historical footprint on cable, which it was able to convert very quickly to fibre. Today, Orange controls approximately 70% of the corporate fibre market.

For its part, the French Competition Authority has chosen to regulate this market by creating a third player, Kosc, to "break" the predominance of Orange-SFR. This "wholesale" operator deploys its own fibre network, which it then rents to small AOTA or Alternative Télécom operators. "Kosc is a good complement, but it's one of many solutions. And anyway, the Kosc network does not have the same capillarity as Orange," explains one of these small operators. The ball is now in the Arcep's court.

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Source : Les Echos

One month after the validation by Arcep, the contract was finally signed between the department and Savoie Connectée. This transaction comes two years after the departmental council terminated its contract with Axione, a Bouygues subsidiary. At the time, an investment of €223 million was planned: €63 million financed by local authorities and €70 million provided by the region, the State and the European Union.

In 2017, elected officials from the Maurienne had entrusted Fibréa with the installation of its own fibre optic network. The departmental council then accused the latter of having unbalanced the public service delegation concluded with Axione. Mauritian elected officials said they had had enough of waiting for the department to deploy the fibre. They had therefore taken charge of it themselves to ensure the development of their territory.

A few months after the termination, the government proposed to local authorities to deploy AMELs to accelerate the installation of optical fibre in rural areas. A system enabling departmental councils to have the deployment financed from operators' own funds.

The Savoie department has therefore chosen this framework to deploy its fibre optic network in rural areas. And it is Savoie Connectée that finances the cost of the works, relying on its shareholders (Covage with 70% of the capital and Orange with 30%). Within four years, 255,000 sockets will have to be connected in 243 municipalities in Savoie. Almost the entire territory of the department will then be connected to very high bandwidth.

The operation is not new for Covage since the operator operates the DSP for optical fibre in 246 municipalities in Haute-Savoie. And he was also awarded an AMEL in Saône-et-Loire.

This eliminates the need for the department to worry about funding and shortens the deployment time. The maturity date is 2023 instead of 2026 in the terminated contract with Axione. However, the departmental council will have paid 6.8 million euros in compensation to Axione to free itself.

A year ago, Covage acquired Fibréa, the company that has wired nearly 500 kilometres of optical fibre in the Maurienne. Therefore, the repetition of the scenario from the previous contract is ruled out. "This avoids any subsequent conflict," agrees Hervé Gaymard, president of the Savoie County Council.

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Source : La Tribune

With the objective of 3 million eligible fibre sockets by the end of the year in these Public Initiative Networks located mainly in rural areas, the operator announced on Tuesday the finalisation of an agreement for the marketing of its fibre offers on the RIPs allocated to Covage.

At the end of this agreement, Orange will be able to roll out its services on certain FTTH networks in Covage: Calvados, Essonne, Haute-Savoie, Hérault, Seine-et-Marne, Somme, Lille and the Dunkirk Urban Community.

Last March, Orange's management claimed a 30% market share in RIPs but is now aiming to take the lion's share on these networks. This approach will necessarily involve partnerships with infrastructure operators specialising in the deployment of these RIPs, such as Covage. The company operates 46 public or private networks and currently covers 2.3 million sockets.

Orange had 350,000 own catches this winter in sparsely populated areas. To reach its target of 900,000 own-access catches in RIPs by the end of the year, the future will therefore depend on partnerships. The incumbent operator wishes to increase the share of catches purchased from partners in these areas to 2 million by the end of 2019. The issue is well understood by Orange, as evidenced by the conclusion of this partnership with Covage.

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Source : ZDNet

In 2013, the initial public-private partnership contract for the installation of Very High Speed Internet in Auvergne was recently renegotiated. The departments of Puy-de-Dôme, Cantal and Allier voted for this renegotiation. The President of the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes Region, Laurent Wauquiez, has therefore signed a new agreement with Orange to ensure the development of the HSBB in the region.

Indeed, the digital coverage of the territory will gain 3 years. By 2022, 436,000 plugs will be deployed, 120,000 more than under the previous contract. Thus 84% of Auvergne will be eligible for fibre within two years.
This will allow the Region and the various local authorities to save 137 million euros on the deployment of optical fibre. Overall, the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes Region has invested 180 million euros in this project, which represents 50% of the public-private partnership.

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Source : Ecomnews

Submitted last autumn by the Association of Alternative Telecommunications Operators, the request for an opinion to separate Orange's retail and infrastructure sectors into two separate entities was rejected on 30 January by the French Competition Authority. Indeed, the competition police do not consider it useful to give a favourable follow-up to the study of this referral for an advisory opinion.


The 45 operators that make up the AOTA protest against "repeated problems of access to the Civil Engineering of the Orange operator inherited from the national public domain of telecommunications, itself used by Orange to operate its copper network and constitute a passive shared fibre network currently unavailable in activated mode for competition."


However, the association does not intend to stop there, since it now plans to call on Brussels to defend its positions: "the association takes note of this decision by the independent administrative authority responsible for protecting consumers, whether residential or economic, from unfair practices on the part of private interests. It now also intends to refer the same matter to the European Union in order to obtain its opinion and, if necessary, to take the necessary corrective action to ensure that competition is conducted in a healthy and fair manner on the French telecommunications market."

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Source : ZDNet