Adista and Rezopole are pleased to invite you to the 63th edition of the Aperezo.

Meet on Wednesday 18th March at Avenue 45, from 6:30 pm to 10 pm.

Attention: the number of places being limited, registration is MANDATORY.
For organizational and security reasons, any person not in possession of a nominative registration confirmation * will be refused access to the event.

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About our sponsor

Adista's strength lies in its ability to combine the know-how of a hosting provider, a telecommunications operator and a specialist in business IT. Adista is ISO27001 certified, has 31 branches and 500 employees.

Its offer covers 4 universes: Connectivity, Modern Workplace, IT as a Service, Digital Factory, with associated Managed Services:

• MPLS and SDWAN VPN, fiber, 4G, satellite technologies...
• Converged fixed/mobile IP telephony, Microsoft Teams/O365
• Hosting, facilities management, 5 in-house data centres and public cloud, cyber security
• Application Development

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

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

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

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

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

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

 Read the article

Source : La Tribune

The partnership between the European pylon giant Telco and Bouygues Telecom is being further strengthened with the creation of a joint venture (51% owned by Cellnex and 49% by Bouygues Telecom). This new agreement concerns the deployment and operation of the operator's fibre optic network in France, with an investment of one billion euros by 2027.

This will enable Cellnex to deploy a 31 500 km network linking the roofs and telecom masts operated by Bouygues Telecom to the network of "metropolitan offices" designed to house data processing centres.

This will create "a real fibre optic ring linking several key elements of the fixed and mobile ecosystem, from fibre-connected masts to data centres and small cells", said Tobias Martinez, CEO of Cellnex.

Placed within the framework of a joint venture created between the two companies, the agreement will also cover the deployment of 90 new "metropolitan offices" by 2027.

In France since 2016 via its local branch, the group now has 130 employees responsible for managing a portfolio of 9,192 mobile sites throughout the country. This rapid growth has led Cellnex France to become a first-name customer for the other two sector champions, Hivory and TDF.

This is a good illustration of the group's strong ambitions in France and in Europe, where in 2019 - and for the first time ever - it will generate 51% of its turnover and 60% of its ebitda outside Spain.

This strategy is supported by a substantial investment by the Spanish ogre in France. 4.3 billion in France since the creation of its local branch. 4.3 billion in France since the creation of its local branch, making it Spain's leading investor and raising it to the status of a benchmark player in mobile infrastructures.

Cellnex France has also acquired 5,700 passive sites from Free through the acquisition of 70% of Iliad's TowerCo.

This strategy has paid off, since 67.5% of Cellnex's revenues are now derived from infrastructure services to mobile operators. The Spanish giant has announced that it has exceeded the one billion euro revenue mark in 2019, with 36,471 sites now operational in Europe.

The group recorded overall revenues up 15% for the year and Ebitda up 16% compared to the previous year. And with an order book that now stands at 44 billion euros, this is not likely to stop.

This performance owes a lot to an extraordinary investment by the Spanish ogre. It has injected no less than 8 billion euros into growth operations in 2019.

"2019 will undoubtedly have been a year of transformation with a prodigious leap in size and a qualitative leap in strengthening the group's position in its key markets, as well as an expansion of our geographical presence in Europe," said Franco Bernabè, the group's chairman.

 Read the article

Source : ZDNet

Rezopole is pleased to invite you on Thursday, March 19th to the next IXPloration organized in its offices at 16 rue de la Thibaudière, 69007 Lyon.

This completely free event will be an opportunity for you to discover LyonIX, the IXP / NAP of Lyon.

Thus will be detailed during this morning:
- the IXP part, which improves Internet exchanges between users in a territory, reduces telecom costs, and secures and optimizes the network thanks to the multiple routes offered.
- the NAP part, which provides connected members with direct access to the operators present and their offers. We buy or sell any type of Telecom service with great flexibility.

On the agenda

9h00 – 9h30 : Welcome over a coffee

9h30 – 10h30 : Presentation of LyonIX :

                         - Economic and technical advantages

                         - Connection solutions

                         - Questions and Answers

10h30 – 11h30 : Visit to a LyonIX Point of Presence

 Register

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

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

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

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

 Read the article

Source : La Tribune

As expected last September, Iliad confirmed its choice to turn to Nokia for its 5G telecom infrastructure. A total of 17 million subscribers in France and Italy are potentially concerned to switch to this latest generation mobile technology when the time comes.

"The Iliad Group will install Nokia's latest radio access technology, AirScale, enabling it to take advantage of the first 5G networks while supporting 4G/LTE and 5G in the same radio access system," said the Finnish equipment manufacturer.

The technology supports different network topologies, from distributed, centralized and cloud-based RANs. The OEM points to its speed and ease of installation and 60% energy savings as well as backward compatibility with its Flexi base station controllers.

In addition to Iliad, Orange has also chosen Nokia - alongside Ericsson - for the deployment of its 5G network. In particular with its Single RAN technology coupled with network automation and management tools and associated professional services in the regions.
 

 Read the article

Source : Le Monde Informatique

The deployment of 5G has become an international geopolitical issue. And the spokesman for the Chinese embassy in France is concerned about "recent reports in several French media that the competent French authorities are considering taking restrictive measures against Huawei in the deployment of 5G in France".

It recalls that the French President and senior officials have stated in this press release that, with regard to 5G, "France would not take discriminatory measures against any specific country or company, nor would it exclude Huawei".

These fears of espionage are unfounded for China. "In reality, Huawei's 5G equipment is totally reliable and has never presented any technical or security risks, nor left any 'back door'," said the spokesman.

China says it is counting on France "to take concrete action and create an open, transparent and non-discriminatory business environment for companies from all countries, including China".

Last Friday, Orange announced that it had selected European groups Nokia and Ericsson as equipment suppliers for the deployment of a 5ᵉ generation mobile network in metropolitan France.

Within the French telecoms sector, the prevailing sentiment is that the French authorities want to ban Huawei from the 5G market but will not say so publicly.

For its part, the European Commission has published its directives refusing to exclude the Chinese group, while allowing member countries to ban equipment manufacturers they deem to be "high risk".

Several operators say they fear that excluding Huawei will lead to delays and additional costs in the deployment of 5G.

 Read the article

Source : Challenges

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

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

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

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

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

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

 Read the article

Source : La Montagne

Published on February 4th, a Tactis study shows that in peri-urban areas, around 30% more sites will be needed to offer a 5G service level equivalent to 4G. This is particularly true in rural areas, where twice as many sites will be needed to provide equivalent coverage, and up to three times as many to deliver a broadband service.

To arrive at these estimates, Tactis experts have simulated 4G coverage in several peri-urban and rural areas from existing mobile antenna sites. They then simulated what 5G coverage would look like based on these same sites. In its projections, Tactis uses only the 3.5 GHz frequency band. However, it is clear that coverage is much less in 5G than in 4G.

Why such differences? Because the frequencies used to provide 5G will not be the same as for 4G, and they do not have the same characteristics. "Current 4G deployments use low frequencies, which carry far, while the high frequencies that will be used for 5G deployments, in the 3.5 GHz band, offer a lot of throughput but carry much less far," explains Julien Renard, radio expert at Tactis. However, the Tactis simulations do not include the 700 MHz frequency band, even though these frequencies are low and allow much better coverage of territories. To explain this choice, Julien Renard points out that the 700 MHz band will not allow us to benefit from "all the promises of 5G". It is impossible, he says, to offer a real broadband service with these frequencies.

The densification of 5G networks in the heart of cities and the most urbanized areas, which are generally very profitable for operators, will certainly be a priority for Orange, SFR, Bouygues Telecom and Free. On the other hand, the firm is looking at peri-urban areas and rural areas, which are less profitable. To acquire 3.5 GHz frequencies, operators will have to commit to ensuring that by 2024 and 2025, 25% of the number of 5G sites deployed will be in rural areas. However, there is no obligation to deploy new sites in rural areas. However, this will be an imperative for providing quality 5G coverage, according to Tactis.

The risk? A new digital divide between urban and rural areas. The latter could end up, in the long term, with non-existent or poor quality 5G networks. The solution to further densify the networks could come from a greater mutualisation of mobile infrastructures.

Operators are already thinking about this. In an interview with Les Echos, Stéphane Richard, CEO of Orange, judged that "the question of an advanced mutualization is raised. [...] Orange has signed (agreements in this sense) in Spain, Poland and Belgium. In France, some of our competitors already share their networks to a large extent; we are also thinking about it". The major manoeuvres could start as early as this year, once the 5G frequencies have been allocated.

 Read the article

Source : La Tribune

The European Union has just published a raft of measures - a toolbox in EU jargon - to enable its members to mitigate cyber risks. "According to the EU coordinated risk assessment report, the measures concern the security of stakeholders in the 5G ecosystem, which are mainly mobile network operators and their suppliers, in particular telecoms equipment manufacturers," the report reads.

The measures set out by the EU fall into two categories: strategic and technical, complemented by targeted support actions. Each of these measures is associated with a level of risk backed by positive or negative implementation factors and the time required for implementation.

It has thus identified 8 strategic 5G cyber risk mitigation measures and 11 mitigation measures at the strategic level.

In addition, a roadmap has been specified: Member States are invited to take "concrete and quantifiable steps to implement the set of key measures according to the recommendations contained in the conclusions associated with the EU toolkit" by 30th April 2020. Then to draw up by 30th June 2020 "a report by the SRI Cooperation Group on the state of play of the implementation of these key measures in each Member State, based on the reports and regular monitoring carried out in particular within the SRI Cooperation Group, with the assistance of the Commission and ENISA".

This announcement comes at a time when the 28 members of the Union have agreed to give priority to local players, Nokia and Ericsson, for 5G core network technologies, de facto excluding players such as Huawei. This does not mean, however, that the Chinese manufacturer's equipment will disappear altogether, as it will, for example, be able to offer it for non-sensitive parts of the network in the UK, while being capped at 35% of the 5G market. This prospect seems far from being a topical one in Germany, where the government is said to have evidence of Huawei's connivance with the Chinese intelligence services...

 Read the article

Source : Le Monde Informatique

The prospect of going out of business is slipping away for Kosc. "A business continuity plan will be proposed by Kosc's management and massively supported by Altitude Infrastructure," explains David El Fassy, the president of this group specialising in the deployment of fibre optics in rural areas.

The offer will be placed on Monday on the desk of the receiver, who will have to choose between it and possible disposal plans presented by other candidates, such as Bouygues Telecom, which has long been presented as a potential buyer.

"We propose to maintain the business and the services provided to customers. We are backed by Altitude, an extremely experienced family group used to providing wholesale only services. And we pay the company's liabilities. This is by far the best solution," argues Yann de Prince, Kosc's founding president.

As part of the continuation plan, the debts of 40 million euros would be renegotiated. And an agreement would be sought with SFR to settle any dispute.

The fact remains that the company is burning cash. The former shareholders - the OVH group and Caisse des Dépôts - had agreed to provide 4 million euros at the beginning of December to ensure operations during the recovery phase. The administrator knows that this cash box will soon be empty.

Faced with this cash flow problem, Altitude Infrastructure promises to invest 100 million euros in Kosc over the next five years. A large part of this contribution will be made out of own funds.  "Acquiring new customers is expensive, explains David El Fassy. Kosc's technical infrastructure is now efficient and supplies a lot of companies. Kosc's market is ahead of him. Our business plan foresees a return to operational equilibrium in 2022."

The existence of this continuation plan should reassure Kosc's employees, the dozens of customer operators, the companies that they themselves supply, and also the elected representatives of the Senate and the Assembly, who have taken up the challenge in recent months to criticise the Competition Authority's action on the corporate telecoms market. Indeed, faced with the very unsatisfactory access of SMEs to optical fibre and high prices, in a context of Orange and to a lesser extent SFR domination, the parliamentarians called for the rescue of the Kosc model. The rescue is on its way.

 Read the article

Source : Les Echos

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 Read the article

Source : Les Echos

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 Read the article

Source : Les Echos

Sorry for the latecomers, but we are closing registration today!

AOTA and Rezopole thank you for your interest in this event.

See you on Wednesday, January 29th from 6:30pm

in the iconic music and entertainment venue, the Hard Rock Café.

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

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

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

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

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

 Read the article

Source : Les Echos