Ghislain Heude has been appointed Director or Arcep’s “Fibre, infrastructures and territories” department.
A graduate of the Institut d’études politiques of Lyon and the Institut Mines Télécom Business School, Ghislain Heude began his career in auditing and consulting at the firm Arthur Andersen (which became Ernst & Young in France).
In 2006, he joined Arcep to take charge of accompanying local authorities in exercising their new regional digital development powers and responsibilities. In 2010, he joined the “Broadband and superfast infrastructure” unit, overseeing the regulation of access to civil engineering for FttH network deployments.
In 2013, Ghislain Heude went to work for the Ministry of the Economy and Finance to help draft the Plan France Très Haut Débit blueprint for nationwide superfast broadband coverage. In 2014, he became head of the department responsible for examining local authorities’ superfast broadband projects, and coordinated the teams of rapporteurs for the Superfast Broadband task force. After the creation of France’s Digital Affairs Agency (Agence du Numérique), he was appointed Director of the Superfast Broadband task force in 2016.
In September 2017, Ghislain Heude joined the RTE (Réseau de Transport d’Electricité) power transmission network to run its Arteria subsidiary’s Internet of Things (IoT) programme. He became their Director-General in January 2020.
In November 2021, Ghislain Heude rejoined Arcep as the Deputy director of the “Fibre, infrastructures and territories” department, with the particular task of coordinating the work surrounding the switchoff of the Orange legacy copper network.
His appointment to the position of Director of Arcep’s “Fibre, infrastructures and territories” Department took effect on 12 September 2024.
What does Arcep’s “Fibre, infrastructures and territories” department do?
The "Fibre, infrastructures and territories" (DIT) department is responsible for regulating fixed broadband and superfast broadband markets, which include the solutions used by network operators and the wholesale solutions used to provide retail market broadband and superfast broadband services. To this end, it performs analyses of the corresponding markets and imposes and monitors the resulting obligations.
The "Fibre, infrastructures and territories" department is also responsible for preparing the so-called “symmetrical” regulatory framework that applies to the establishment of and access to optical fibre networks, and for monitoring operators’ compliance with that framework. In particular, it contributes to defining and monitoring the implementation of sharing rules for these networks for the benefit of consumers (price, quality service).
It also ensures Arcep’s relations with the local authorities whose involvement in regional digital development it oversees. It leads the Liaison Group between the Authority, local authorities and operators.