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.

 Read the article

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.

 Read the article

Source : La Tribune

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".

 Read the article

Source : National Geographic

In the Wall Street Journal the company decided to talk about this disproportionate operation, called "Simba". Very few details have so far been revealed about the project. We only know that it would be connected to existing access points, particularly on some beaches on the east, north and west coasts.

Surrounding Africa with a gigantic submarine fibre optic cable would allow almost the entire population to enjoy the Internet. Facebook knows that to extend, it must absolutely attack this continent inhabited by more than 1.2 billion people and which is not yet very well connected to the rest of the world. This is due to infrastructure that is still under development and completely uncovered areas. So if several million Africans could connect to the Internet tomorrow and create a Facebook, WhatsApp or Instagram account, the social network would save a lot of users in a very short time.

However, there would not yet be a signed agreement for the installation of this huge cable. And this is not the first time Facebook has talked about installing an underwater cable to connect the world. Facebook was pulling a transatlantic cable over 6,500 kilometers long, Marea, in 2017 with the help of Microsoft. The installation began in 2016 and provided a stable connection in 2018 by connecting Virginia Beach, United States to Bilbao, Spain.

 Read the article

Source : Siècle Digital

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....

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Source : DegroupNews

After Altice at the end of November, it is Cube Infrastructure's turn to put its shares up for sale according to several sources. Covage's 50% shareholder paid 66 million euros in 2012 to buy back its shares from Vinci. However, Morgan Stanley Bank was mandated to find a buyer on the basis of a valuation of €1 billion.

The group's EBITDA would now reach €35 million for a turnover of around €100 million. "These ratios are not relevant. We are talking about an activity in full explosion with a very low maturity. In reality, the main driver is rarity," points out a good connoisseur of the file.
Charged by several departments with deploying optical fibre, Covage has already connected 630,000 of the planned 2.2 million households. The company still hopes to win a few more contracts to reach 3 million catches, which would represent just under 10% of French households.
When all the cables are pulled, Covage will be one of the few players to have such a digital infrastructure in a significant portion of the country. Indeed, once this task is completed, operators will have to pay a fee to use their networks.

€1.8 billion to acquire half of the optical lines that SFR must deploy outside major cities. But this deal is criticized in the industry because many believe that the infrastructure has been oversold. Indeed, the line rental prices highlighted could not be applied.

On paper, there are many candidates for the acquisition of Covage: investment funds, other RIP players, in particular Altitude or major operators...

 Read the article

Source : Les Echos.fr

Published by Objectif Fibre and its partners, this mapping of the optical fibre business has required more than a year of collaborative work. Developed as part of the Employment and Skills Development Commitment (EDEC), this tool aims to facilitate description, training and recruitment in this sector.


Expected by employment, training, companies and local authorities, this reference framework is divided into 26 job descriptions defining the corresponding profiles. These sheets thus complete the description of the job titles, the activity, the prerequisites, the missions or the development prospects.


This publication confirms the dynamism of the players in the fast-growing optical fibre market and the collective intelligence at the service of the France Very High Speed Plan. The deployment of the HSBB is a major challenge since it represents 22,000 job creations by 2022 with an average of 3,800 new hires each year in various fields.

 Read the article

Source : InfraNum

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

It took a year and a half of volunteer work to publish this study on the conditions of access to the Public Initiative Networks (PINs) deployed in France.

This tool is intended for the FFDN's associative ISPs but also for other operators of similar size. Two steps were necessary to achieve it: first, to collect information such as contracts and service catalogues, and then to analyse and present the information obtained. The objectives of this approach are to show the difficulty of associative ISPs to operate on certain networks, but also that it is possible to create conditions that allow them to operate since some RIPs bring them together.

In order to facilitate the visualization of the information collected from each public service delegate, the FFDN has set up a scoring system. Each service offer of a RIP was therefore evaluated using the same methodology containing objective criteria such as the amortisation period of the investments, the minimum number of subscribers and the price for the end user. The conditions proposed by each RIP were then summarized by assigning a score. From A to D, for the networks on which it would be possible to operate. And Z for networks where no activated offer is available in the catalogue or another equally blocking point.

On the map below, taken from the FTTH barometer, we can see that more than a third of the French departments have obtained a Z score. This means that no offer is adapted to the needs of associative ISPs.

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Source : FFDN

For the first time in France, an associative Internet Service Provider (ISP) will be able to connect consumer subscribers in FttH. Indeed, thanks to a participative fundraising campaign, Illyse raised 5520 euros. This sum represents the entry ticket to the RIP (Réseau d'Initiative Publique) of the Loire department. The associative operator will now be able to set up a collection infrastructure. It will therefore be able to connect its first subscribers in early 2019.

But that's not all, since a second level of 4114 euros has been reached. This allows Illyse to become a LIR (Local Internet Registry) and thus receive an allocation of IP addresses from a regional Internet registry (RIR).

A big victory for ISP associations that are demanding cheap activated offers. Indeed, they cannot deploy their own fibre optic network due to lack of resources. Associative operators therefore turn to the network rental of a major player to offer FttH to their members. But in most cases, prices are unaffordable.

 Read the article

Source : 01net.com

An important milestone has just been reached by the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology - RMIT University. By improving data transmission equipment, the University announces that it will be able to increase fibre optic speeds by a factor of 100.

RMIT University is interested in a particularity of light that is used to transport information in an optical fibre. Indeed, since light propagation can be carried out in a spiral movement (OAM for Orbital AngularMomentum), it is possible to multiplex several signals on the same fibre. This increases the total bandwidth.

In order to exploit the OAM, the University has developed a miniaturized component capable of decoding such signals. "Our miniature OAM nanoelectronic detector is designed to separate different OAM light states in a continuous order, in order to decode the information conveyed by twisted light," explains Dr. HaoranRen. Previously, this required a machine the size of a table, which is completely unrealistic for telecommunications. By using ultra-fine nanosheets measuring a fraction of a millimetre, our invention does this work better and fits perfectly into the tip of an optical fiber. »

A small size and low cost sensor that would adapt to existing fiber sizes. This would allow us to "exploit the full potential of twisted light for future optical and quantum communications," says Dr. Min Gu of RMIT University.

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Source :ZDNet

Copper has long been overtaken by optical fibre, both in terms of throughput and bandwidth. And it is not about to stop there since the fiber will no longer be mono but multi-core! "Tomorrow, it will be possible to accommodate up to seven cores in the same fiber," explains Aurélien Bergonzo, Acome's Director of Technology, Research, Engineering and Prospective. It can even have up to 19 cores and reach throughputs of several hundred Gigabits per second.

The multiplication of the number of cores will have several impacts. This will significantly increase the capacity of a single cable but also reduce the deployment cost. This multi-core technology opens new horizons both from a technical and commercial point of view, especially for operators. Indeed, they will be able to offer companies new services adapted to demand such as QoS and speed.

Read the article

Source : ZDnet

Among more than 35,000 municipalities in France, 541 still have no access to the Internet, even though it is now a necessity. The government has therefore set itself the goal of "getting rid of these white areas" by announcing broadband and very high speed access for all by 2022. Things seem to be moving in this direction with the "new mobile deal" concluded between the State and ARCEP to accelerate mobile coverage of territories or the compromise between SFR and Orange on the development of fibre in less dense areas.

Arnaud Bousquet proposes to review this digital divide in the 31th July radio programme Le téléphone sonne on France Inter. To answer the Internet question, mobile telephony: when will the white zones end? he receives Martine Lombard, member of the ARCEP college, Michel Combot, Director General of the Fédération Française des Télécoms and Sébastien Dufromentel, secretary of the Fédération FDN.

Listen to the show

The white zone concept only concerned mobile telephony and currently represents only 1% of the territory. Today, it also includes Internet access. To enable everyone to access this technology, more than 20 billion euros will be invested in the France Très Haut Débit plan.

For most people in these dense areas, it is not a choice not to use the Internet, it is a technical impossibility. The testimonies of various listeners from the Lot, the Hérault or even the Loire-et-Cher are quite appalling. Some have to travel several kilometres to have an Internet connection or pay a monthly subscription but only manage to connect once a week. Others, a little luckier, have an ADSL connection but very low and must therefore invest in additional equipment with a very irregular speed. The elected representatives also call on the operators to improve this connectivity wherever we go, work or live. However, there are other ways to connect like 4G, 5G or radio bridges. These transition technologies are deployed by the operators while waiting for the optical fiber.

If at the beginning of the 2000s, France had no delay for the deployment of ADSL, the same cannot be said for very high speed broadband. One of the reasons is that the major operators have prioritised their infrastructures at the expense of FTTH (fibre to the subscriber's home). Regulatory requirement is another such factor. However, France remains globally ahead in terms of optical fiber in Europe thanks to its investments over the last ten years.

Technical questions arise for the integral fibering of the population. In France, 40% of households do not have an address or number, although a house numbering plan is required for each commune. This plan speeds up the fibering process and limits the risk of errors during the optical fibre connection.

However, white areas are not limited to rural areas. Connecting to the Internet remains difficult or even impossible on public transport or rail networks. The equipment and coverage of the transport axes is an important point of the January agreement between the government and the operators. One of the objectives set is to cover 90% of the regional rail network in 4G by 2025.

This raises the question of equipment priority setting. Why do we choose to equip a city that already has 4G with optical fibre rather than a city where there is no Internet access? It is the local authorities that are supposed to define the priorities. But most local authorities, via the Public Initiative Networks, let the commercial operator decide which areas to equip. The economic development of the regions now depends on the development of the territory in digital infrastructures to be able to work and develop its trade.

This "digital new deal" is an important government commitment. The State is making efforts and is thus renouncing the financial auction of frequency allocations, i.e. around 3 billion euros. But in return, operators commit to invest these sums, or even more, in improving the mobile network with general commitments: transform all 3G sites into 4G, cover 55,000 km of road network by the end of 2020, create 5,000 sites each with mutualization to fundamentally remedy the mobile disparity.

A listener from Deux-Sèvres raises the question of the network's obsolescence. In rural areas, most subscribers have access to the Internet via ADSL via the telephone network installed over 40 years ago. However, the use of this network has its limits since the flow decreases with distance. Optical fibre is particularly suitable for these areas since the throughput remains the same whatever the distance. The choice of this technology is therefore justified, but it is still necessary to find the investments to deploy it. It is also necessary that the operators who lay the fibre do not keep it for their own profit. Indeed, this would lead to foreclosure for small ISPs and only large operators could operate.

The removal of these white areas can pose a problem for so-called electro-hypersensitive people since they are currently refuge areas. But how to face these contradictory wills because if certain people refuse Internet by principle or because of their health, it is a very strong stake in particular against the rural desertification of the youngest.

The digital divide can also be transposed to Overseas France. For example, in French Guiana less than 7% of the territory is covered by 4G. Only the coastal areas have good coverage, the rest of the department has no 4G access but these areas have a low human density. Investment efforts have been made by local authorities and operators in Overseas France, but more remains to be done, particularly in French Guiana.

Listen to the show

Source : France Inter

Some 400 submarine cables weave an invisible yet crucial network for our connected world. 1.3 million kilometers long, they are essential to the proper functioning of the Internet and account for 99% of intercontinental trade. These little-known infrastructures are attracting more than ever the envy of States, intelligence services and Internet giants.

Find the show Le Dessous des cartes, Câbles sous-marins : la guerre invisible in replay here.

This video is available until June 14th, 2018 only.

Source : Arte VOD-DVD

[French article]

Bits of Networks : Etat des points d'échange Internet en France (extraits)

Qu'est-ce qu'un point d'échange Internet ?

Un point d'échange Internet, ou IXP (Internet eXchange Point), c'est un endroit où plusieurs opérateurs réseau s'interconnectent pour échanger du trafic.

De façon simplifiée, il faut voir ça comme un gros switch Ethernet sur lequel chaque opérateur réseau va se brancher, à l'aide d'un câble RJ45 ou une fibre optique. Oui oui, on parle bien du même genre de switch Ethernet que vous avez sûrement chez vous pour brancher vos ordinateurs, juste un peu plus rapide et fiable (et donc plus cher) [...]

Les IXP permettent de développer le territoire local

Les points d'échange sont importants pour développer le réseau sur le territoire local, puisqu'ils permettent aux opérateurs locaux de s'échanger du trafic directement, sans passer par les gros noeuds d'interconnexion comme Paris, Londres ou Amsterdam. Ça permet de réduire la latence et le coût, et de moins dépendre d'infrastructures qui deviennent critiques de par leur concentration (par exemple TH2 à Paris concentre une grosse partie des interconnexions de l'Internet français...). En somme, décentraliser et relocaliser le réseau, ce qui a des vertus non seulement techniques et économiques, mais également humaines : cela permet aussi de relocaliser les compétences techniques [...]

[…] L'effet de réseau joue : comme pour beaucoup de systèmes en réseau, plus un point d'échange possède de membres, plus il devient intéressant de s'y connecter. En effet, plus de membres présents signifie d'avantage de trafic échangé potentiel, pour le même coût fixe […]

La qualité de service d'un IXP doit être irréprochable

[…] Les opérateurs ont donc naturellement tendance à privilégier les points d'échange bien gérés et fiables. En réponse, les points d'échanges qui veulent subsister et grossir se donnent les moyens d'assurer un service fiable : astreinte 24/24, architecture technique redondée, matériel de pointe, etc.

On assiste donc à la fois à un regroupement des compétences, via des structures comme Rezopole pour éviter de tout réinventer de zéro à chaque IXP, mais aussi à un fort partage de connaissance et d'expérience à plus large échelle, avec le RIPE et EuroIX.

[…] L'ecosystème des points d'échange n'est pas un sujet nouveau, mais il reste fascinant parce qu'il entrelace des problématiques techniques et des relations entre structures parfois très différentes. Il illustre bien le modèle distribué et pair-à-pair qui a fait d'Internet un succès. On peut par ailleurs constater que certains points d'échange sont gérés comme un bien commun !

Si le sujet vous intéresse, le RIPE NCC maintient un blog collaboratif très actif sur des sujets liés à Internet en Europe, notamment les IXP et le peering. Toujours sur RIPE labs, Uta Meier-Hahn écrit régulièrement des articles passionnants sur les enjeux des interconnexions entre opérateurs.

Vous souhaitez en savoir plus, retrouvez ici l'intégralité de cette étude.