Paris, 2 March 2017
Today, Arcep is publishing its scoreboard for the fixed broadband and superfast broadband market (services, rollouts and subscriptions) in France at the end of 2016.
The scoreboard details the progress being made by FttH deployments in each type of rollout area.
SUBSCRIPTIONS: The threshold of two million fibre-to-the home (FttH) subscriptions has been exceeded.
• In Q4 2016 the number of superfast broadband subscriptions (maximum download speed equal to or faster than 30 Mbit/s) increased by 385,000 to reach 5.4 million, or an additional 1.2 million subscriptions year on year (YoY). The majority of this growth is due to an increase in the number of subscriptions to fibre to the home/building (FttH/B) plans, which rose by 260,000 compared to Q3 2016 and by 740,000 over Q4 2015. As a result, the two million subscriber mark was overstepped during the quarter, reaching 2.2 million subscriptions at the end of 2016.
• In total, subscriptions to superfast connection plans accounted for 20% of the 27.7 million fixed broadband and superfast broadband subscriptions in France at the end of Q4 2016, which marks an increase of 255,000 over the previous quarter and of 840,000 year on year (+3.1%).
ROLLOUTS: FttH rollouts continue, with 731,000 additional lines deployed during the quarter.
• For the first time, Arcep is providing a snapshot of how fibre to the home/building (FttH/B) rollouts are progressing across the country, by publishing detailed information for each main category of FttH/B network rollout. So in addition to an overall national view, Arcep now provides a status report on deployments in the three categories of rollout area: very high-density areas, less densely populated areas covered by private initiative rollouts, and sparsely populated areas where public-initiative networks are being deployed. The progress report on rollouts indicates the entity operating the deployed infrastructure, and which is responsible for sharing this infrastructure with other operators. A progress report on passive network equipment sharing is also provided according the same geographical breakdown. These elements help to enhance the scoreboards on rollouts and on the marketing of public-initiative FttH networks, which Arcep has been publishing since 2016.
• As 31 December 2016, 7.7 million households were eligible to subscribe to an FttH plan, which is a 37% increase YoY. This quarter was marked by an increase in the pace of FttH rollouts, with an additional 731,000 homes passed, or 11% more than in the previous quarter.
• In total, at the end of the fourth quarter of 2016, 15.8 million households in France were able to subscribe to a superfast internet access service, all technologies combined, including 10.2 million households located outside of very high-density areas.
• An open data file is available on the Arcep website which makes it possible to track the indicators published as part of this scoreboard over time. It now includes the new data that are being published.