The Chair of Arcep, Laure de La Raudière, will be travelling to the French West Indies from 3 to 7 November 2025. This trip to Saint Martin, Guadeloupe and Martinique is part of the Authority’s monitoring of regional digital development policies. It will provide an opportunity to obtain a status report on both fixed connectivity: optical fibre deployment, copper network switchoff; and mobile connectivity: local 4G coverage and 5G rollouts. Discussions with local stakeholders (operators and local authorities) will also enable the Authority to gain a deeper understanding of the restrictions specific to these island territories.
In Saint Martin, the visits and discussions planned with the prefecture, local authorities from Saint Martin and Saint Barthélemy, along with local operators, will focus on the state of fixed and mobile networks: restoration efforts since the passage of hurricane Irma and, more generally, local infrastructures’ resilience in the face of climate emergencies, as well as the planned submarine cable designed to connect Martinique to Florida.
In Guadeloupe, the Arcep Chair will hold discussions with the Prefect, local officials from the territorial authority of Guadeloupe, local mayors and operators on the progress in optical fibre deployments. A field trip is planned to Petit-Bourg to observe a dismantling and recycling operation on the copper network, which was decommissioned in that town in June. Laure de La Raudière will also visit the village of Deshaies, where the copper network switchoff is scheduled for 31 January 2026, and will discuss the final deployment stages with XpFibre and Guadeloupe Digital. A co-management meeting will bring together operators, the Region and State government departments to discuss overarching regional digital development issues, and obtain a progress report on current deployments.
In Martinique, Laure de La Raudière will attend the inauguration of the Eutelsat–OneWeb teleport in Lamentin, alongside the mayor, partners Orange and Eutelsat, as well as representatives of the regional prefecture and the territorial authority of Martinique. The day of 6 November will be devoted to institutional coordination and the regional digital development strategy: the Arcep Chair will attend the meeting of the regional digital strategy committee (CRSN), co-chaired by the territorial authority of Martinique and the regional prefecture, to discuss the status of fixed and mobile network deployments, the resilience of local infrastructures, along with the territory’s digital development and digital inclusion priorities. Field trips are also planned to the northern part of the island, to the municipalities of Case-Pilote and Bellefontaine to observe the work that is underway and the recently commissioned infrastructures. The trip will wind up with bilateral discussions with each operator.