Although the launch of the France Très Haut Débit plan in 2013 was slow, its acceleration has finally produced good results. Metropolitan France will not be covered by 2022, as was initially planned, and it will take until 2025 - or even 2030 - for some regions to be fully covered. However, the investments made in deployment work have enabled the country to make a good comeback in the European rankings. France is now ahead of the United Kingdom, Germany and Italy with an average speed of over 50 Mb/s.

These efforts have resulted in a significant increase in subscriptions, as France now has more than 14 million fibre-optic customers. The country will soon have more fibre subscribers than xDSL Internet customers.

Orange is by far the leading fibre optic Internet provider with over 5.2 million customers, ahead of SFR (3.6 million), Free (3.3 million) and Bouygues Telecom (1.9 million).

Moreover, the health crisis has only accentuated the need for the French to be able to rely on a reliable and efficient Internet connection. So much so that in the real estate sector, the connection of properties to the fibre optic network is becoming an increasingly important criterion for buyers.

The current challenge is in rural areas, where fibre optics are more expensive to deploy and less profitable. This is why the State and local authorities are obliged to get involved through the RIPs (public initiative networks) to accompany the rollouts carried out by the operators. This is why the recovery plan decreed to revive the economy after the stoppage linked to Covid-19 provides for some 570 million euros for the deployment of optical fibre.

 Read the article

Source : Les Numériques

The social network has just announced that it has developed a robot capable of winding optical fiber on medium-voltage power lines, in partnership with ULC Robotics. The cost would thus be three to five times lower than the traditional aerial construction operated by the players in the sector.

Karthik Yogeeswaran, wireless systems engineer at Facebook Connectivity, believes that the complexity of fiber deployment is hindering the global adoption of ultra high-speed broadband. So this innovation could make a big difference in a large part of the developing world, but also in countries with very large territories.

"The idea of using electricity infrastructure first came to us after seeing the ubiquitous power grid infrastructure as we travelled through rural Africa. ...with its long transmission lines usually suspended from high lattice towers, power transmission networks perform a function similar to that of an internet backbone, connecting generation sites to substations."

Facebook's innovation is expected to prove decisive as it will reduce the manual deployment of optical fibre on medium-voltage lines. The robot is capable of continuing the deployment on live lines while overcoming the obstacles it encounters in order to minimize disruptions to electrical services.

However, the robot must be light enough to be supported by these medium voltage lines. The amount of optical fiber that it can carry with it is therefore limited. To get around this difficulty, Facebook has modified the size of the cable used.

"While traditional aerial fiber deployment involves heavy machinery, coil carts, large coils and large teams, a fiber deployment team deploying our solution will consist of two or three power line installers and a van with a few kilometers of fiber coils, a robot and a few accessories, which will allow many teams to work in parallel", says Karthik Yogeeswaran.

In developing countries, Facebook estimates that the total cost of deploying a very high-speed network, including the labour needed to operate the robot, would be between 2 and 3 dollars per metre. The US giant explains that "by reducing the total cost of aerial deployment of the fibre, we hope our system will have a significant impact on Internet penetration, especially in the half of the world that earns less than $5.50 a day",

While this innovation should not be used in France, it should help to improve the adoption of very high speed broadband in many parts of the world.

 Read the article

Source : ZDNet

The full rollout of very high speed broadband via fibre optic cable in Brittany is scheduled for 2026. However, in addition to the containment and health crisis, the RIP Mégalis Bretagne is also facing delays accumulated by its partners: the Suez Safege subsidiary, Axione, Artelia/Orange and Snef. Phase 2 is due to be completed by the end of 2022, while phase 1 of the project is already two years behind schedule.

The Syndicat Mixte, representing 1,233 communes in Brittany, has therefore just imposed its first penalties for a total estimated amount of 600,000 euros. For its part, Megalis Bretagne should release eight million euros of additional credits in 2020.

Axione, the Bouygues subsidiary, has announced the creation of 350 additional jobs to complete the project, which is due to be completed by 2026. In view of the delays in Côtes-d'Armor and Ille-et-Vilaine, the joint venture has just launched a new call for tenders to select construction companies that are "fully operational" by 1 January 2021, covering 15,000 sockets to be built.

 Read the article

Source : ZDNet

The operator has launched the marketing of its Very High Speed subscriptions, up to 1 Gb/s, in many cities. To do so, it relied on SFR's FttH network. These are AMII zones, moderately dense zones, where the red square operator is the only one to manoeuvre. It installs a shared optical fibre network there, which other ISPs will then be able to use.


More than 50 cities in some 15 departments are affected by the arrival of Bouygues Telecom's offers. The operator is thus following in Free's footsteps, which has been investing in these territories for several months now.

Bouygues Telecom, which has not been present so far, seems to have launched a vast marketing effort since the end of September. In particular on the outskirts of major cities such as Calais, Cannes, Marignane, Nantes, Toulon, Toulouse and Orléans as well as in several major municipalities in the Ile-de-France region.


In these regions, competition will therefore be somewhat fiercer since at the beginning of the year only SFR, RED, Orange and Sosh offers were available. For several months now, Free has been growing in power, so it is not surprising to see Bouygues Telecom complete the picture. This is to keep pace with these territories with hundreds of thousands of potential customers.


At the same time, Bouygues Telecom is whipping up new ground in major cities. At the beginning of 2019, its very high speed Internet offers were still absent from many large cities located in so-called very dense areas (ZTD). But the situation is gradually improving with the arrival of its fibre in Cannes, Clermont-Ferrand, Grenoble, Poitiers, Rennes, Rouen, Saint-Etienne, Toulon or even some Ile-de-France municipalities such as very recently Fontenay-sous-Bois.

 Read the article

Source : Ariase

After a first meeting on January 29th, the second is planned for July 2th at Challes-les-Eaux.

Theme: HSBB in the Alps

Departments concerned: 38; 73; 74 and 01 (South Jura) with a focus on tourist areas (ski resorts, hotels).

Observation:

Broadband needs are exploding with the advent of "Over The Top" (OTT) networks and the strong growth of services such as Amazon Prime Video, Netflix, OCS, MyCanal...
Initial observations between the 2017 and 2018 Christmas holidays show a +60% increase in the throughput consumed in hotels and hotel residences. For these establishments, connections in Mbs will soon no longer be enough and requests in 1, 2, 3 or even 4 Gbs are beginning to arrive.

Work in synergy:

From now on, it is essential for telecom and Internet operators to organise themselves in order to be able to respond effectively to this need, which was yesterday emerging and is now very present.
This is the objective of yALPA! We must encourage the actors of Very High Speed deployment to meet and get to know each other better in order to consider future collaborations rather than planning, each on its own, investments in the same places.
The local DSPs (38, 73 and 74) do part of the work, but simply changing departments is complicated. Let us bet that by exchanging informally, a collective intelligence will make it possible to accelerate the arrival of really Very High Speed offers in the Alps (resorts but also valleys and plains).
It is understood that the results of these initial yALPA discussions will not have immediate effect. However, in the more or less short term, the problems currently encountered in terms of HSBB in tourist areas can be solved.

Morning program (9:00 am - 12:00 pm):

• welcome, coffee, pastries
• round table discussion: presentation of each participant
• Transalpinet presentation (study by Rezopole)
• room for improvement:
  • common carto tool.... Should we start where we wait another 10 years?
  • new backbone offers from external operators
  • territories without POPs

Registrations:

from Samuel Triolet (director of Rezopole) : striolet (from) rezopole.net

Practical informations:

See you on July 2nd at 9:00 am at Hub des Alpes (salle Altitude 193) - 37 avenue des Massettes, 73190 Challes-les-Eaux.

Arcep has opened a window to allow local authorities to obtain THD radio frequencies and thus deploy this technology on their territories. The challenge is to be able to offer very high speed (minimum 30 Mb/s) to households with the lowest ADSL coverage and promised a late arrival of optical fibre. According to InfraNum, some 2.2 million households will be affected by 2022.


But here we are, only a handful of local authorities have obtained or requested dedicated frequencies. Indeed, the Federation reports a "deployment of the THD radio [...] under study or confirmed for nearly 40 departments" and notes that to date a "dozen departments" have not initiated any action.


InfraNum therefore sounds the alarm and asks Arcep to extend the opening of the THD radio counter by one year. The objective is to have more time to convince these communities to opt for a wireless solution. If other solutions exist, such as 4G setting up major national operators, the Federation warns that it will "not support, in addition, specific domestic or professional uses". And the prospect of a fixed 5G service is no more to be considered "waiting for its arrival to meet an immediate need for very high fixed broadband in rural areas is a decoy" warns Etienne Dugas, President of InfraNum....

Read the article

Source : DegroupNews

Theme: HSBB in the Alps

Departments concerned: 38; 73; 74 and 01 (South Jura) with a focus on tourist areas (ski resorts, hotels).

Observation:

Broadband needs are exploding with the advent of "Over The Top" (OTT) networks and the strong growth of services such as Amazon Prime Video, Netflix, OCS, MyCanal...
Initial observations between the 2017 and 2018 Christmas holidays show a +60% increase in the throughput consumed in hotels and hotel residences. For these establishments, connections in Mbs will soon no longer be enough and requests in 1, 2, 3 or even 4 Gbs are beginning to arrive.

Work in synergy:

From now on, it is essential for telecom and Internet operators to organise themselves in order to be able to respond effectively to this need, which was yesterday emerging and is now very present.
This is the objective of yALPA! We must encourage the actors of Very High Speed deployment to meet and get to know each other better in order to consider future collaborations rather than planning, each on its own, investments in the same places.
The local DSPs (38, 73 and 74) do part of the work, but simply changing departments is complicated. Let us bet that by exchanging informally, a collective intelligence will make it possible to accelerate the arrival of really Very High Speed offers in the Alps (resorts but also valleys and plains).
It is understood that the results of these initial yALPA discussions will not have immediate effect. However, in the more or less short term, the problems currently encountered in terms of HSBB in tourist areas can be solved.

Registrations:

from Samuel Triolet (director of Rezopole) : striolet (from) rezopole.net

Calendar :

01/29/2019 : episode 001 at 9:00 am at the Isere County Council - 7 rue Fantin Latour, CS 41096, 38022 Grenoble cedex 1..

Morning program (9:00 am - 12:00 pm):

• welcome, coffee, pastries
• round table discussion: presentation of each participant
• brainstorming: ideas proposed and debriefed
• carto workshop: "bring your kmz!!!!" / "bring your own shape!!!!!"
• first conclusions and draft of an action plan; list of requests to be made to the Region, to the CSPs where
• applicable, cooperation commitments between operators present...

07/02/2019 : episode 002 at 9:00 am at Hub des Alpes (salle Altitude 193) - 37 avenue des Massettes, 73190 Challes-les-Eaux.

Morning program (9:00 am - 12:00 pm):

• welcome, coffee, pastries
• round table discussion: presentation of each participant
• Transalpinet presentation (study by Rezopole)
• room for improvement:
  • common carto tool.... Should we start where we wait another 10 years?
  • new backbone offers from external operators
  • territories without POPs