ARCEP publishes a decision that sets the economic terms governing access to France Telecom ducts.

Paris, 18 November 2010

On 9 November 2010, ARCEP adopted a decision setting the economic terms governing access to France Telecom ducts

This decision, which France Telecom will be implementing at the start of 2011, will result in a significant decrease in the price that alternative operators are charged to access France Telecom ducts, which will enable them to deploy optical fibre networks under favourable conditions - as much in high density areas as rural ones.

In high density areas, volume-based pricing will allow operators to roll out parallel networks and so compete with one another, while also encouraging a reasonable use of the available space. In more sparsely populated parts of the country, the flat-rate pricing scheme applied to access encourages operators to share resources and offers a predictable system despite the disparities in available civil engineering resources. This system could be extended to include overhead infrastructure, as the Commission invited the Authority to do in its remarks, and in accordance with the draft market analysis decision that was submitted to public consultation from 27 July to 30 September 2010.