Paris, 10 December 2014
Since 27 October 2014, any operator that so desires has been able to market broadband and superfast broadband products using VDSL2 technology across the whole of France.
Authorising the use of VDSL2 nationwide marks the completion of an in-depth investigation period that began back in 2011, whose goal was to enable the use of VDSL2 in France by employing a configuration that is unprecedented in Europe, namely via unbundling, without disrupting existing DSL technologies. This work led to the publication of two successive opinions from the special committee on copper systems: the first in April 2013, authorising VDSL2 on direct distribution lines and the second in July 2014, expanding its use to all lines in the copper local loop.
ARCEP has closely monitored this progressive introduction of VDSL2 across the country, and committed to publishing a scorecard one year after broadband and superfast broadband products using VDSL2 where introduced commercially.
VDSL2 scorecard
With this document, ARCEP wants to establish the first scorecard for the introduction of VDSL2 on the copper local loop. Two of its main purposes are to make public assessments of network performances in real-life situations, and to estimate how the technology has affected national superfast broadband coverage levels. Among other things, this information will enable public authorities that are involved in superfast access network rollouts in France to better gauge the impact of VDSL2 on their regional digital development projects.
This document provides a status report on operators’ VDSL2 rollouts since the technology was approved and assesses, on the one hand, the impact that its introduction has had on the number of users now eligible to receive a superfast service and, on the other, its role in the retail market.
Linked documents
Scoregard (in French)