"The objective will be met: to bring very high speed broadband to 100% of French people by the end of 2022, 80% of which will be fibre - probably more," said Cédric O, the Secretary of State for Digital Affairs.

After a decade of work and more than 20 billion euros invested, the figures prove him right. Indeed, two thirds of French households were eligible for fibre optics last spring. With a current rate of 15,000 new homes and businesses seeing fibre arrive on their doorstep every day, the 80% mark will be passed by the first half of 2022.

For French people not covered, there is an alternative solution offering speeds of over 100 Mb/s: VDSL, cable or, soon, satellite - thanks to the commissioning of Eutelsat's very powerful Konnect VHTS.

The gamble has therefore been successful nine years after the launch of the "France Very High Speed Plan". Especially since the objectives have been raised: the estimated total number of households in France has risen from 36 million in 2013 to 41 million in 2022, without lowering the 80% mark. And that there was no shortage of difficulties: shortage of raw materials, shortage of manpower, stoppage of construction sites at the start of the pandemic, etc.

The work still needs to be finished, because even in large cities, around 10% of homes are still without fibre optics. In medium-sized towns, the situation is not satisfactory either. They were supposed to be fully covered by fibre by the end of 2020. Six months after the deadline, only four out of five homes were eligible. The government and Arcep are passing the quid on a possible sanction, but a certain annoyance is perceptible on the part of the authorities. As for the countryside, fibre is being rolled out at breakneck speed. But they are not fully covered by the projects already launched. About 2 million homes are still in limbo. These lines, the most complicated to build and the least profitable, will require new subsidies.

Through the stimulus package, the government has already put €150 million on the table. The industry estimates that at least two to three times more will be needed. An evaluation mission should be made public at the end of the year. We will then know how much the next executive will have to invest if it wants to bring fibre to 100% of French people.

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Source : Les Echos

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.

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Source : Les Numériques

On 20 July, the operators submitted their plan of attack to improve the quality of connections to the government. For the French Federation of Telecoms (FFT), there is no question of letting these malfunctions damage the image of fibre and hinder its deployment in the short and medium term.

This opinion is shared by all telecom stakeholders. "Good quality [of connections] is essential to ensure the operation of FttH networks under good conditions, to ensure their sustainability and to limit the additional costs associated with recovery or reinstatement work," Arcep points out. The same is true of operators, who regret that damage to network infrastructure, whether deliberate or not, does not harm their image or that of fibre.

Last May, the infrastructure operators had already made a series of commitments to improve the quality of connections by changing the subcontracting contract (STOC mode) that governs the market. Now it is the turn of commercial operators to tackle the problem head on. In this white paper, they propose various ways to put an end to "noodle dishes".

In addition to training their field staff, the operators also advocate the widespread use of a new form of engineering within shared cabinets. This new architecture, known as the "M" shape, "makes cross-connection more fluid and intuitive, thanks to a colour code for the paths". The latter are thus campaigning for the generalisation of this system on a national scale.

In addition, and in order to allow for a better audit of connections already made, the operators wish to generalise a new type of photographic report, "which provides for time-stamped photos to be taken before and after each intervention, making it possible to control the quality of the work carried out by the participants and to rapidly detect the appearance of defects". Launched at the beginning of the year, the tool nevertheless suffers from a few limitations: "the controller's inability, whether human or mechanised based on artificial intelligence, to ensure that the optical positions occupied are in accordance with what is planned". This is a major shortcoming, as it is common for this malfunction to lead to bottlenecks in the cabinets.

The operators also want to rely on an interoperator application, called "e-Mutation", which aims to help technicians improve their visibility of the lightpaths used in a given cabinet. They also announced the forthcoming launch of an interoperators IT tool to track a fault from notification to resolution.

The last point concerns the National Address Database (BAN), a public database that aims to reference the address of all premises in France. The database, which can be used in the form of an API by operators, has been criticised for its shortcomings, particularly in rural areas. "It is essential that local authorities quickly acquire a complete address database," explain the operators, who rely on this information in their connection operations.

Will this put an end to the proliferation of noodle dishes? At least that is what the operators are hoping for. Especially since the timing is critical for the adoption of fibre, while the rollout of very high speed broadband continues in all directions in metropolitan France. Fibre professionals expect to deploy 6.2 million sockets in 2021. This should exceed the government's objectives in this area, with forecasts of 87% of homes connected to fibre in 2022, instead of the 80% initially desired by the public authorities.

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Source : ZDnet

It is now the turn of the professionals in charge of connection to commit themselves to solving the problem posed by the lack of maintenance or connection to the fibre. They have committed, through the signing of a charter of good practice, to put an end to what the public authorities see as a major obstacle to the adoption of fibre in the country.

A series of commitments including that of limiting themselves to a single level of subcontracting, "with particular attention to the status and qualifications" of the subcontractors employed.

This is a challenge given that "cascading" subcontracting is often blamed for defects in the quality of connections. The signatory companies of this charter, representing 70% of the sector's players, have also undertaken to encourage the use of local employment and to support the training of their employees through the implementation of actions dedicated to initial training or skills upgrading.

These include Axians, Circet, Constructel, Eiffage, ENGIE Solutions, Firalp, NGE Infranet, SADE Télécom, Groupe Scopelec, SNEF Télécom, Sogetrel, Solutions30 and SPIE CityNetworks.

Commercial operators and infrastructure operators such as Altitude Infra, Axione, Orange, TDF and XpFibre had already committed themselves at the beginning of March to a new subcontracting framework contract (also known as STOC mode, for "Sous-Traitance Opérateur Commercial") in order to put an end to these repeated abuses which are poisoning the lives of users.

Unfortunately, this problem is not new. Indeed, a working group set up by Arcep on the subject already reported in 2019 on "significant rates of malfunctions in the execution of final connection and cross-connection operations at the mutualisation point".

It cited three main difficulties to be resolved in order to put an end to the proliferation of "noodle dishes": repeated non-compliance with the rules on cross-connection at the point of mutualisation, defects in the routes taken by the optical fibre which can lead to traffic jams at the optical connection points, and various acts of vandalism at the points of mutualisation.

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Source : ZDnet

After long negotiations, the government and Orange have just agreed on an action plan to improve the quality of service of the copper network. Indeed, even if the deployment of optical fibre is progressing rapidly, the 22 million French people who still have an active line based on this network must not be overlooked.

The plan therefore provides for an additional 10 million euros to be committed to 17 priority territories, as well as 123 new posts in departments under pressure and a 30% increase in national crisis response staff.

The incumbent operator will have to provide a back-up solution within a maximum of 24 hours from the time the incident is reported, provided there is mobile coverage. If the mobile network is not sufficient, a satellite connection will be made available from the town halls.

Local consultation committees will be set up to improve consultation between Orange and elected representatives. A national consultation committee will also include representatives of the Commission Supérieure du Numérique et des Postes (CSNP), representatives of associations of local authorities and government departments.

It should be remembered that the total dismantling of the copper network will begin in 2023 and will extend until 2030, as fibre optic coverage of the territory progresses.

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Source : 01net

At a conference organised to present a dedicated barometer produced by Infranum, representatives of the fibre industry and the authorities had reason to be pleased. Indeed, the sector should once again reach a milestone in 2021 with the deployment of 6.2 million connections during the year.

The fibre players have even allowed themselves the luxury of exceeding the government's objectives with forecasts of 87% of homes connected to fibre in 2022 instead of the 80% initially desired by the public authorities.

If the year 2020 had already seen the sector break all records for connections, with 5.8 million sockets installed, the current year is looking even better. And it is on the public initiative networks (RIP) that the sector's professionals have chosen to focus in 2021. Of the 6.2 million outlets expected in 2021, 3.6 million will be located in RIP zones, compared with 1.8 million in AMII zones, 0.5 million in very dense zones and 0.4 million in AMEL zones.

A slowdown is planned for 2022 with the deployment of 5.8 million sockets, the majority of which will still be installed in RIP zones. The result is that while 40.6 million homes will have fibre optic access by 2025, there will still be 6.5 million outlets to be installed between now and 2025 in order to complete the networks.

And this is where the problem lies: "if there are "only" 6.5 million outlets left to be deployed by 2025, these will be the most difficult", emphasise the industry's representatives.

And to point out that 2.1 million premises, i.e. the last 5%, will necessarily have to be financed via substantial public aid... Worse still, 3% of this "remainder to be deployed" will not be able to be deployed, due to technical and financial constraints. "For these homes, it will be necessary to study other avenues, such as satellite internet," says Infranum, which sees the launch of new satellite offers as an increasingly credible alternative for achieving the objective of very high speed broadband for all.

In order to achieve 100% of homes with fibre over the next decade, the sector's professionals are calling for the implementation of a universal fibre service.

But there are also other pitfalls in the provision of high-speed broadband for all. Starting with the quality of connections, where the average failure rate of connections is currently between 20 and 25%. And although the representatives of the sector and the public authorities made commitments a few weeks ago to combat the spread of "noodle dishes" in civil engineering cabinets or within buildings, the result will not be immediate.

Among the burning issues for the sector is also that of employment. What is to be done with the professionals involved in the connection process once it is completed? This question will continue to be asked in the years to come, especially as the sector has recruited 9,700 new employees in 2020, instead of the 5,500 announced last year, and plans to recruit 5,500 in 2021, rather than 1,500.

"Three points must focus our efforts: the transition from copper to fibre, improving the quality of connections and anticipating the post-2021 period, particularly with regard to employment," conceded Cédric O...., the Secretary of State for the Digital Sector, on Tuesday, while welcoming the work carried out so far, noting that "the figures are very good, but we must continue this collective work, because there are still challenges to be met.

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Source : ZDnet

In an interview with La Gazette Val d'Oise, Rachid Adda, director of Val-d'Oise Numérique, the union in charge of deploying fibre in the department, believes that "some individuals should stop changing operators every six months, to benefit from the cheapest subscription". According to him, "this mania for changing subscriptions represents up to 40% in certain districts" and would contribute to the current situation. He stressed that "breakdowns on the network only represent 5%".

Rachid Adda denounced the precariousness of the workers at the end of the chain. "The operator pays a subcontractor for interventions. But the subcontractor himself calls in another technician whom he pays less, while pocketing the operator's commission. This low-cost technician intervenes for 30 to 50 euros. He therefore needs to carry out a maximum number of repairs. That's why I am indignant about the outsourcing of interventions", he explains.

The director of Val-d'Oise Numérique also deplores the problem of the skills of the people working in the field: "It only takes 10% of the technicians to be poorly trained for the operation to fail".

It also denounces bad practices in the field. While the network is oversized, with, for example, a box containing 12 connections for 10 homes and 10 metres of optical fibre inside to leave room for manoeuvre in the case of repairs, some subcontractors would go as close as possible, even if it meant saturating a box, or would not warn when they had exhausted the available room for manoeuvre. Rachid Adda also reports a greater incidence for ground floor subscribers in buildings and explains: "the technician prefers to connect the subscriber on the 3ᵉ to the one on the ground floor, so as not to have to go upstairs". Another case: connections during inclement weather. "Some people, very often in winter, do not try to open a new line from the cabinet. They simply connect the subscriber to another subscriber... who they then disconnect," he says.

The director of Val-d'Oise Numérique also mentions the case of cabinets that have to be refurbished because of the numerous interventions, or even changed because of acts of vandalism. "A cabinet repair costs 100,000 euros. We do two a year. Recently, we changed three in six months in the same municipality," he explains.

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Source : Univers Freebox

In order to make fiber available by 2025 for 100% of premises in France, the government has decided to release an additional 570 million euros.

This sum will notably concern the Réseaux d'Initiatives Publiques (RIP) to offer fiber everywhere in rural areas. An initial budget of 420 million euros will be allocated to 12 RIPs, including those in Auvergne and Brittany. Auvergne alone will be entitled to 123 million euros to create 267,000 fiber outlets, i.e. additional individual connections.

The remaining 150 million euros will arrive a little later. The State has indicated that the details of this sum will be shared during the summer.

Mobile coverage is also being discussed. While three quarters of France is currently covered in 4G by Orange, SFR, Bouygues Telecom and Free Mobile, 2,000 additional masts will be installed over the next two years. They will join the 580 existing pylons. In total, the operators will install some 10,000 masts.

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Source : KultureGeek

The hot topic at the end of this year in the HSBB ecosystem: the quality of subscribers' connections to fiber optic networks. This is why the Objectif Fibre platform, which brings together the various organizations representing the sector, has published a practical connection guide, intended for "all the players involved, from near or far, in the deployment of FttH".

Listing good practices according to the (many) cases encountered in the field, this document provides "the technical recommendations applicable in each situation encountered and which have been agreed upon by professionals in the sector". The objective is to "do it right the first time" but also to aim for "homogeneity throughout the country".

The guide is addressed both to technicians and to all the actors concerned (principals, operators, engineering and design departments, training organizations or real estate actors) in order to guarantee the success of the interventions but also to prevent the resumption of work which can prove to be expensive or to be used as technical support of reference in the event of litigation.

"It's a whole ecosystem [...] that will be reconciled with a totally shared know-how," says Cédric O in the foreword to the guide. For his part, Sébastien Soriano writes in the preface that this "capital document represents an accomplishment for the entire sector towards greater harmonization and quality".

The president of the Arcep also considers that "it is essential for the durability of the networks that the operators reinforce the controls of their subcontractors in the course of their interventions". A reminder to infrastructure and commercial operators, who are currently discussing an amendment to their subcontracting contracts in order to implement this reinforced control, with the hope of achieving this by the end of the year...

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Source : DegroupTest

Over the past two or three years, the acceleration in fiber deployment has been clear, but the hardest part remains to be done: connecting the least dense areas of the territory. Despite the government's efforts - generalization of fiber by 2025 by mobilizing nearly 300 million euros to support the latest projects not yet funded - the account is not there. The reason: to serve scattered housing or isolated businesses, the cost of so-called long connections is very high and for some, it may even be prohibitive.

The answer must emerge from "negotiations with the various local authorities on the financing of their projects, with major demands that may not be able to be met exactly," explains Cédric O. Indeed, the Secretary of State wants "to match needs and subsidies to achieve the goal of 100% fiber in 2025. For the specifications, we'll see afterwards".

Non-standard connections are also available in less dense areas of private initiative. The question of the effective availability of fiber arises for homes and businesses that are isolated and/or difficult to serve. This is the case in the AMII zone, where Orange and SFR's commitment was to make 100% of premises connectable by the end of 2020. Including 8% on request because they are considered more complex to serve or not a priority.

If the health crisis has pushed back the deadline for these commitments, they will finally be reached in 2021 according to Nicolas Guérin, Secretary General of the French Federation of Telecoms. For Arcep, it is the responsibility of the State to ensure this. For Sébastien Soriano, President of the Regulatory Authority, "no worries" about SFR's compliance with the deadlines. However, he believes that there is "a landing point to be built with Orange".

A common ground could be found on the launch of offers for premises that can be connected on demand. This would enable a little over one million homes and businesses "set aside" during the initial deployment schedule to be connected within six months of the order being placed with an access provider. Nicolas Guérin, also Orange's General Secretary, explains that after having made massive deployment, the incumbent operator is now able to "move to a more qualitative deployment".

On the Arcep side, where "procedures are under way" to gauge operators' compliance with completeness rules, we are waiting to see if these offers will enable us to respond to the problems identified. In any case, Sébastien Soriano considers it desirable that these on-demand connection offers should first arrive in areas that have been scheduled for more than five years - and sometimes much longer - and where 100% of the premises are not yet connectable.

The question of the durability of the FttH networks also arises, particularly concerning the connection in Stoc mode. Access providers want to connect their customers themselves. While network operators are not against this, they are concerned about connection failures and the damage this causes. Both parties are not desperate to find new agreements before the end of the year, in order to clarify the responsibilities of each party.

All of this is under the watchful eye of the communities that own the public-initiative networks. If it is not surprising to hear elected officials thundering against the Stoc mode; it is more surprising to see a member of the government raising his voice on this very operational issue. "It's not possible," Cédric O. hammered out, "We are in the process of ruining what we are achieving" by strongly encouraging those concerned to solve the problem: "Either we know how to solve it intelligently between people of good will, or the State will have to make more complicated decisions, even if it means causing inconveniences in the system".

Stakeholders therefore no longer seem to have much leeway to save the Stoc mode. And to achieve this, the representative federations - InfraNum for the networks, the FTT for the operators - need to get around the table, thus pleading the case of several players in the ecosystem. This is also the opinion of Benoît Loutrel, commissioned by the French Secretary of State for the Digital Economy to study "securing the deployment and operating conditions for FttH networks". His task will be to re-examine the France THD program. The report he will produce in a year's time will "not be intended to put pressure on this or that actor, but rather to problematize and find a method", warns the interested party. It will propose ways to "transfer learning feedback" between territories, to "organize the interplay between public authorities and industry", and finally to "anticipate the resilience of networks".

On this last point, while burying is a common sense choice in the West Indies, it is no less relevant in metropolitan France.Climate risks also weigh on an air deployment that is anything but marginal, argues the Bank of the Territories. As part of its recovery plan, it plans to allocate additional resources to support local authorities in their landfill projects and secure access to major network sites. To this end, a call for projects will be launched in 2021.

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Source : DegroupTest

To ensure the quality of fiber deployment, the government will launch a mission to monitor FttH deployments.

The most visible aspect of the degradation of the state of fiber networks is in some street cabinets. The model of entrusting the connection of subscribers to Internet service providers, in a relationship of subcontracting to network operators, is regularly blamed for these setbacks. And the various protagonists are still struggling to come to an agreement to put an end to the mess.

Some observers also point to the original choice to move the points of pooling as close as possible to residential or professional premises, to the detriment of a more centralized and therefore more secure architecture.

But beyond the state of the cabinets, the upstream part is also in the sights of this major control operation that the government intends to launch.

Indeed, the initiative is based on a set of alerts, notably concerning the undersizing of transport cables. In some places, the amount of lightpaths available would be insufficient to serve all users.

There are also concerns about imported fibre optics, which do not appear to be fully satisfactory.

The vulnerability of fibre networks to climatic hazards also explains this renewed vigilance.

The objective stated in the mission letter of this monitoring operation: "to better secure deployments and operating conditions on public-initiative networks" (RIP). And to find "remedies" for potential problems identified.

Fiber networks deployed by operators using their own funds, in very dense areas or in less dense areas of private initiative (AMII in particular), would therefore be excluded from the scope of this monitoring mission.

Will it be a matter of leaving it up to the operators to ensure the proper functioning of their own network, while the State would only do so on RIPs, where public funds have been committed?

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Source : DegroupTest

This week, the Arcep unveiled its assessment of fiber optic deployments in the second quarter. And even though the milestone was reached under difficult containment conditions, half of French homes are now eligible for fiber optic cable. In fact, 1.2 million new lines were deployed between April and June. Fiber optic coverage of the territory is progressing at a "high rate", even if "the health situation related to Covid-19 has not allowed operators to continue the significant acceleration observed at the end of last year".

Despite severe restrictions due to the health crisis, work continued at a rate equivalent to that at the beginning of the year: around 400,000 lines per month. The equivalent of a town like Nemours or Granville... every day.

This dynamic allows us to calmly envisage the "five million new lines" in 2020 predicted by Minister Cédric O. If this pace is maintained for another two years, the executive will have kept its promise to bring fiber to 80% of French homes by the end of 2022.

However, the Arcep is showing its vigilance in one particular area: medium-sized cities. Indeed, in 2018 Orange and SFR made a commitment to the government and the regulator to cover them entirely with optical fiber by the end of 2020. And with 10.5 million connectable lines, they are still a long way off. Orange covers only 67% of households in the municipalities to which it has committed and SFR 75%.

In theory, they have nine months left to complete 5.5 million lines - an almost impossible task. Arcep's only concession: the deadline can be postponed by three months following the health crisis, as provided for in the government order on the extension of deadlines linked to the coronavirus. Even with this additional quarter, "the pace of deployments will be critical over the next few quarters and the Arcep will continue to be attentive to the efforts of operators", writes the Telecoms gendarme, who clearly has no intention of slackening on the subject.

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Source : Les Echos

The executive's discourse seems to have evolved over the summer on the issue of digital planning. The future recovery plan will not forget fiber since the plan will provide additional funds to support areas where some 3 million lines remain to be financed.

This financial boost is part of a more ambitious project, outlined by Cédric O: moving towards a "universal service" for fiber.

The first piece of information delivered by the Secretary of State for the Digital Transition and Electronic Communications: the subsidy window for public fiber deployment projects is going to be replenished.

Until now, the government has refused to go beyond 280 million euros in subsidies, when both local authorities and manufacturers calculated total needs at 680 million euros. 680 million. Last May, in a letter sent to the executive, local authority associations warned that "a reassessment of this envelope will have to be studied in light of the financial situation of local authorities, the higher deployment costs associated with health measures and the higher than expected number of catches to be deployed".

Unveiled next week, the recovery plan will provide more details on the effort the government is prepared to make on this specific point.

Additional funds to generalize fiber, yes, but "with the ambition to move towards the logic that fiber must be an essential service," added Cédric O. The government seems to be aligning itself with a request made by local authorities, since this would allow "professionals in the sector to continue to ensure the deployment and operation of fixed and mobile networks in the event of a crisis". It would also provide an opportunity to remove certain obstacles to deployment, such as access to common areas to fiber the risers of buildings.

If the idea of making fiber an essential infrastructure met with the reservations of the former Minister of the City and Housing - in charge of the THD dossier - this is however what the executive wants to work towards today: "we want to work on the notion of universal service," indeed added Cédric O. A project that could start as early as this fall, when the European Electronic Communications Code is transposed into French law. "This should enable us to extend the concept of universal service to include fiber coverage of the territory," the Secretary of State for Digital Affairs added.

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Source : DegroupNews

Organized by Mon Territoire Numérique every year in March in Deauville, the RIP Estates General finally took place in video format. The meeting of public initiative networks made it possible to gauge the impact of the health crisis on the very high-speed broadband projects carried by local authorities.

At the end of March, InfraNum warned that a complete halt to the fibre optic deployment projects would be a "catastrophe" likely to cause 12 months of inertia. Today, the Federation of Digital Infrastructure Industrialists is breathing - a little. Its president, Étienne Dugas, says "We have worked on the ordinances, on the various decrees with more or less success" in order to "avoid the complete shutdown of the industrial tool, which is done".

Overall, activity fell, on average, to around 30% of nominal production during containment. This made it possible to keep the industrial facilities in operation, although the situation varied greatly from one region to another.

Today, the time has come for a return to load: 50% activity last week, 70% this week. At any rate, these are the figures announced by Julien Denormandie, the French Minister for Urban Affairs and Housing, who has been in charge of HSBB issues since 2017. But Etienne Dugas warns that they should be taken with caution: "In terms of productivity, we are still far from the rates we could have had previously".

This observation is corroborated by Lionel Recorbet for SFR FttH: "We are going to have a lot, a lot of difficulties to get back to 100%". Cyril Luneau, Director of Community Relations at Orange, also warns that a return to pre-crisis fibre deployment levels "is not for now". The Covid episode will have "a serious and profound impact on the calendars and milestones for the end of this year, and no doubt for 2022", i.e. the deadlines for the operator's commitment in the AMII zone.

The operators therefore warn that at this stage it is difficult to quantify the additional delays. Pascal Rialland, President of Covage, nevertheless risks predicting a postponement of deployment of "4 to 6 months in 2021" for the 75,000 fibre optic lines that Covage was to deploy in 2020 in Calvados.

Schedule slippages will be inevitable and consequently delays in commercialization could ultimately weigh on the economy of the projects carried by the communities. As will the more immediate additional costs associated with health precautions.

It is not possible at this stage to put a figure on these additional costs. InfraNum has also commissioned an impact study for the end of the month. The Federation of Industrialists intends to use this work as a basis for the recovery plan promised by the government for next September.

While waiting for a clearer picture of the impact of the health crisis, the participants in the Estates General of the RIPs preferred to insist on other levers for accelerating deployment in order to respond to the digital impatience.

On the industrial side, the immediate cash needs of companies in the sector were highlighted in order to be able to continue their activity. At the height of the crisis, infrastructure operators have multiplied initiatives to relieve the cash flow of their subcontractors (reductions in payment deadlines, advances and other subsidies). Now, the idea is to "put more agility" in the payments of France THD subsidies to local authorities, Julien Denormandie announces.

But the President of the French Telecoms Federation, Arthur Dreyfuss, tempers "the answer cannot only be public money". Beyond new financial help, the Secretary General of Altice France is waiting for "all those little everyday obstacles" to the deployment of fibre to be lifted. Many grievances have been voiced for years that many HSBB actors would like to see finally heard. In this exceptional situation, "we have to beat the iron", Patrick Chaize sums up. By making, for example, digital infrastructures an essential asset, argues the Senator of Ain and President of Avicca. An approach allowing the deployment to overcome some of these obstacles, also believes Arthur Dreyfuss, deploring that "we do not benefit from the right that gas or electricity enjoy.

An idea that does not convince Julien Denormandie, for whom such a status could be misunderstood by the French deprived of a good connection. The minister prefers to go through other texts for certain operational advances to which he says he is "open". On the other hand, concerning the very pressing question of co-ownership, the minister kicks the ball, referring to the "balances" of the Elan law. Operators and local authorities have therefore not finished with this painstaking work.

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Source : DegroupNews

With the coronavirus crisis, the France Very High Speed Internet Plan, which aims to offer all French people a high-speed fixed Internet connection by 2022, is under threat. This huge project has indeed slowed down considerably with the containment measures.

The president of InfraNum, Étienne Dugas, warns: "If nothing is done, everything could stop within two weeks." At the end of the line, a lot of small and medium-sized companies could fall. Beyond the economic and social breakdown, he estimates that it will take months to restructure the sector and thus relaunch the machine once the epidemic is over.

To avoid such a scenario, Étienne Dugas believes it is essential to maintain fibre deployment activity at the current level. He therefore requested the support of the executive last April 1st during a meeting between representatives of the Telecoms sector and the ministers in charge of Territorial Cohesion and Relations with Local Authorities.

Both InfraNum and the French Telecommunications Federation (FFT) consider it essential that the government publish its Covid-19 guide for the construction industry as soon as possible in order to provide a framework enabling workers deploying fibre to work in safety. Especially since according to InfraNum and the FFT the FFP1 protective masks are sufficient.

Another concern of the industrialists is that many subcontractors can no longer work due to a lack of agreement from the communities. While others have difficulty accessing buildings to connect them to the fibre. Infranum is therefore asking the government to take steps to remove these obstacles.

Finally, an appeal has been launched to provide financial assistance to the fibre industry to keep the most fragile subcontractors afloat. According to Étienne Dugas, the major operators must also "make an effort to enable the sector to survive this tsunami."

Asked about this, the CEO of the FFT, Michel Combot, emphasizes that "the crisis has an impact on the turnover of operators." According to him, Orange, SFR and Bouygues Telecom are considering ways to support their own chains of subcontractors. "Discussions are underway. Operators could take different types of measures, such as efforts on payment deadlines. We are well aware of our global responsibility."

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Source : La Tribune