Ghislain Heude has been appointed Deputy Director of Arcep’s “Fibre, Infrastructure and Territories” department. His duties will include the work that Arcep is doing to assist Orange with the shutdown of its copper network.
A graduate of the Institut d’Études Politiques in Lyon and the Institut Mines Télécom Business School, Ghislain Heude began his career in auditing and consulting at Arthur Andersen (which later became Ernst & Young in France).
In 2006, he joined Arcep to take charge of helping local authorities exercise their newfound regional digital development abilities. Starting in 2008, he also coordinated the first work done on regulating solutions for increasing connection speeds on the incumbent carrier’s copper networks. In 2010, he became Deputy chief of the “Broadband and superfast broadband infrastructures” unit and put in charge of regulation governing access to civil engineering for FttH network deployments.
In 2013, Ghislain Heude joined the Ministry of the Economy and Finance to participate in drafting the “Plan France Très Haut Débit” superfast broadband scheme. In 2014 he became the head of the department tasked with examining local authorities’ superfast broadband projects and coordinating all of the Superfast Broadband Task Force’s teams of rapporteurs. After the creation of the French Digital Agency, he was appointed head of the Superfast Broadband Task Force in 2016.
In September 2017, Ghislain Heude joined transmission system operator, RTE, to run their telecom subsidiary Arteria’s Internet of Things (IoT) programme. He became Chief Executive in January 2020.
His appointment to the position of Deputy Director of Arcep’s “Fibre, Infrastructure and Territories” department took effect on 15 November 2021.
What does Arcep’s “Fibre, Infrastructure and Territories” department do?
The "Fibre, Infrastructure and Territories" (DIT) department is responsible for fixed broadband and superfast broadband market regulation, which includes the solutions used by network operators and the wholesale products used to provide broadband/superfast broadband services in the retail market. To this end, it analyses the markets in question and implements and monitors market stakeholders’ resulting obligations.
The "Fibre, Infrastructure and Territories" department is also responsible for preparing the so-called “symmetric” regulatory framework that governs optical fibre network establishment and access, and for monitoring operators’ compliance with those regulations. It contributes in particular to defining and monitoring enforcement of the rules for sharing these networks, for the benefit of consumers (price, quality of service).
In addition, it ensures Arcep’s relationships with the local authorities whose actions it monitors, notably in the area of regional development. It also hosts the group that serves as the liaison between the Authority, local authorities and operators.