Arcep launches a public consultation on its draft market analyses 

Paris, 27 July 2017

Arcep is currently in the process of reviewing its analysis decisions (1) on fixed broadband and superfast broadband markets for the period running from 2017 to 2020. A synopsis published on 11 July detailed the main directions set out in these draft texts. Today, they are being published in their entirety for the purpose of consultation.

The consultation on the draft decisions will run until 22 September. They will then notified to the European Commission in the autumn, and the final decisions will be adopted before the end of the year.

As a reminder, the main conclusions of Arcep's work on the matter are as follows:

Optical fibre: pro-investment regulation, to rally every operator to France's fibre project

The regulator hopes that, thanks to the involvement of every market player, the sector's investment and marketing capacity can be maximised and, in turn, accelerate the pace of subscribers' transition from broadband to superfast broadband access.

On the matter of ensuring access to Orange civil engineering infrastructure, Arcep has strengthened its asymmetric regulatory framework to enable more fluid and faster rollouts for every operator using Orange infrastructures to deploy fibre, notably as part of projects led by local authorities.

On the matter of ensuring access to fibre to the home (FttH) networks, Orange has proposed changes designed to address the operational difficulties its competitors have encountered in marketing their fibre products. Arcep has taken note of the improvements that Orange will be putting into action immediately. In light of these concrete changes, the regulator does not believe it is currently necessary to introduce specific, asymmetric obligations (i.e. which apply only to Orange), which is something that had been considered at one time.

Business market: redrawing the competition map by January 2018, to democratise optical fibre access in micro, small and medium enterprises, and help French businesses in their digital transition

For Arcep, the goal is to capitalise on the arrival of residential fibre to expand this market, which is currently heavily dominated by Orange. The objective being to provide the country's many micro, small and medium-size enterprises with a real choice, born of innovations in fibre-based services and at affordable prices, while also ensuring a high standard of service, notably guaranteed service restoration time in case of a malfunction.

By imposing several new obligations on Orange, Arcep's actions aim to:

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(1) Market analysis decisions are the cornerstone of "asymmetric" sector-specific regulation. They define the obligations imposed on the operator or operators that enjoy significant power (SMP) in the market in question.