Today, Arcep is publishing the 2026 edition of its report on the state of the internet in France, along with an update of the Barometers of data interconnection and of the transition to IPv6. At a time when 94% of people in France say they are internet users, this third volume of the Authority’s annual report delivers an account of the actions that it has taken to ensure that the internet continues to run smoothly, and remains open and sustainable. This edition trains the spotlight on the effects of the generative AI boom: this new gateway to online content and services is proving instrumental not only in reshaping digital markets, but also in driving up their environmental footprint.
Interconnection: inbound data traffic on the leading internet service providers’ (ISP) networks continues to rise (+10%), with five Big Tech companies still accounting for close to half of it
Assessed at the interconnection points to the main French ISPs’ networks, inbound traffic reached 56 Tbit/s at the end of 2025, marking a 10.4% increase year on year. This growth is comparable to the one observed the previous year: +9.2% between end of 2023 and end of 2024. Outbound traffic is increasing even more dramatically: by 28.1% to reach 6,6 Tbit/s, which is shrinking the longstanding asymmetry between inbound and outbound traffic.
As in previous years, half of the traffic remains concentrated in the hands of a few: Akamai and the four other leading content and application providers (Netflix, Amazon, Google and Meta) together account for 49% of the traffic relayed to end users.
IPv6: France leads the way in IPv6 connectivity in the consumer market
The transition to IPv6 continues to progress. At the end of 2025, France reported an estimated IPv6 take-up rate amongst consumers and businesses of 74.7%, which puts it in first place of the 100 countries with the largest numbers of internet users, ahead of India and Germany. Ninety four percent of fixed access customers and 83% of mobile access customers have enabled IPv6.
This progress now needs to be consolidated across the entire internet chain. On the content and hosting side of the equation, 38% of websites and 25% of e-mail servers are IPv6 enabled. Arcep is thus keen to reiterate that having everyone migrate to IPv6 is the only viable, future-proof solution to overcome the shortage of IPv4 addresses, and so gradually prepare for an IPv6-only internet.
Net neutrality: ten years after the 2015 Open Internet Regulation, Arcep warns of new challenges
Over the past 10 years, the 2015 regulation has proven efficient in safeguarding net neutrality, as evidenced by the discussions at the European Parliament during the event co-hosted by Arcep on 14 January 2026. New challenges must nevertheless be taken into account to continue to safeguard net neutrality, hence users’ freedom of choice and capacity to innovate on the web.
First, as network slicing is being deployed more and more, work is being done within BEREC to bring greater clarification on ISPs’ use of this technology to develop services, and the conditions for its compatibility with the Open Internet Regulation.
Second, as underscored in the report, “Generative AI: challenges for the future of the open internet,” published in early 2026, generative AI services are becoming new intermediaries, and acting as gateways to online content and services. By selecting, summarising, ranking and reformulating internet resources, these services have the ability to alter the conditions for accessing the diversity of available sources, users’ freedom of choice, and innovators’ capacity to offer new services.
Cloud, data, the Data Act, the Data Governance Act: Arcep continues to work on promoting open markets and on developing the data economy
In 2025, Arcep continued to fulfil the responsibilities entrusted to it by the Law on Securing and Regulating Cyberspace (SREN Act), whose goal is to provide more freedom of choice to the users of cloud computing services, and to develop the data economy and innovation in this area.
Regarding the regulation of cloud computing services, which anticipates the Data Act, Arcep published a recommendation on cloud services’ interoperability and portability, and proposed to the Government that egress fees charged to users switching cloud service providers be set at zero euros. Regarding the implementation of the Data Governance Act, the Authority received 10 notifications from data intermediation service providers, which act as trusted third parties for connecting data owners and users, and awarded the first two “EU trusted data intermediary” labels to companies M-iTrust and Hub One DataTrust.
Arcep is also preparing to implement the Data Act, as a bill tabled in November 2025 plans on entrusting it with new responsibilities, notably regarding accessing and sharing the data generated by connected things, and cloud computing.
Regulating gatekeeper platforms and unlocking digital ecosystems: proposals for the Digital Markets Act (DMA) review
Arcep remains deeply committed to the work being done within BEREC on the economic regulation of Big Tech companies. To this end, it has formulated concrete proposals for the DMA review, including:
- Designating certain cloud market hyperscalers as dominant actors,
- Factoring in the AI services already integrated into legacy digital services when applying obligations to dominant actors,
- Strengthening the interoperability of instant messaging services,
- Implementing data collection to track the markets’ evolution.
Recent European Commission work aligns with several of these recommendations.
Environment: Generative AI is increasing ICT’s environmental footprint, as underscored by several Arcep publications
Data from the latest annual “Achieving digital sustainability” survey documents data centre operators’ growing contribution to ICT’s environmental footprint, due to the surging popularity of the generative AI services they host. Despite improved efficiency, data centre operators’ energy consumption continues to rise (up 12%) as do their greenhouse gas emissions, which rose by 23% between 2023 and 2024.
In its report on “Generative AI: new environmental issues and challenges,” Arcep stresses the lack of transparency from AI service providers and model designers regarding the environmental impact of their models, as well as the growing influence of the inference phase as AI use skyrockets. The work carried out by PEReN reveals that a more frugal AI model is not necessarily synonymous with lesser performance: some more energy efficient models can deliver responses that are just as relevant as those given by large, more energy-intensive models.
In light of these conclusions, Arcep is calling for better assessments of and transparency on the environmental impact of AI, and for the incorporation of the ecodesign of AI services, by implementing some of the General policy framework for the ecodesign of digital services recommendations.
Associated documents
- 2026 report on the State of the Internet in France (in French, English version will be available)
- Barometer of data interconnection
- Barometer of the transition to IPv6
- Report: “Generative AI: new challenges for the future of the open internet”
- Report: “Generative AI: new environmental issues and challenges”