Today, Arcep is publishing a recommendation whose purpose is to provide clarifications on the implementation of the obligation of completeness that applies to fibre deployments. The Authority is also publishing the contributions it received to the public consultation held from 12 November 2024 to 20 December 2024.
As the legacy copper network is gradually being switched off, ensuring complete deployments and users’ connection to optical fibre networks has becoming a major issue.
At the end of December 2024, 40.6 million households in France were eligible to connect to FttH networks, or 91% of all premises nationwide, and 24.4 million households were subscribed to a fibre plan. This means that fewer than one in ten (or 4 million) premises remains to be connected to fibre. Added to which, the Orange copper network switchoff plan is due to enter its industrialisation stage, and is scheduled for completion by 2030.
As a result, ensuring that infrastructure operators complete their FttH network deployments and that all users are actually connected to these new fibre-to-the-home networks is a major issue.
As a reminder, the so-called “symmetrical” framework governing FttH networks establishes the rules for commercial operators’ access to these networks. In particular, it imposes an obligation of “completeness”[1] on FttH network rollouts in the country’s more sparsely populated areas. This obligation requires FttH infrastructure operators to deploy a network that makes it possible for all households and business premises in a given area to be connected within a “reasonable timeframe” (hereinafter the completeness deadline). After the completeness deadline and under certain conditions set out in the symmetrical regulation framework, some households and business premises can be qualified as being “connectable upon request”[2], or remain unconnectable, notably as the result of a duly justified blocking or refusal, which falls outside the infrastructure operator’s responsibility.
Arcep wanted to provide clarifications on the symmetrical framework, particularly in view of the copper network switchoff, regarding those situations that are likely to prevent or delay the completion of optical fibre network deployments.
One main purpose of the recommendation being published today is to provide clarifications on the various circumstances that are preventing the completion of FttH network deployments, including:
- Refusals or blocking by property owners or other third parties, encountered by infrastructure operators: in this situation, it is recommended that infrastructure operators document their efforts to avoid or resolve these situations and to continue to monitor them, as the choices of the tenants or businesses in the premises in question can change over time.
- Premises identified by infrastructure operators as “connectable upon request”: the recommendation illustrates the way in which operators can assess potential users’ appetite for fibre access when they want to qualify certain premises as being connectable upon request.
- Connecting new buildings: the recommendation includes a reminder of the definition of “new building” under the symmetrical framework, and clarifies infrastructure operators’ responsibilities in detecting new buildings and connecting them to the FttH network when they are located in housing developments or joint development zones (ZAC).
Associated documents
- Recommendation on the implementation of the obligation of completeness for fibre to the home deployments
- Contributions to the public consultation launched in November 2024 (zip – 12 Mb)
[1] Article 3 of Arcep Decision No? 2010-1312 of 14 December 2010: https://www.arcep.fr/uploads/tx_gsavis/10-1312.pdf.
[2] A premises referred to by an FttH infrastructure operator as “connectable upon request” is one whose optical connection point (OCP) is installed by an FttH infrastructure operator within six months of receiving their first order from a commercial operator for an FttH line that depends on that OCP, thereby connecting that premises to the FttH network.