The Post, Arcep's monthly newsletter

Connected Territories Conference: spotlight on network quality

This special edition of the Post is being published to coincide with Arcep’s annual Connected Territories Conference. This forum devoted to regional digital development is an important event for Arcep. It provides an opportunity to listen to everyone’s – elected officials, local authority representatives and operators – expectations and their questions about the major issue of delivering fixed and mobile internet access to every person across the whole of France. It also gives Arcep a chance to share the latest regulatory developments geared to achieving this objective.

Thanks to a concerted effort, regional digital coverage in France continues to progress. The New Deal for Mobile's targeted coverage scheme created the ability to deploy 1,575 new cell sites since July 2018 in those areas with the poorest coverage up to now, and around 75% of premises in the country are now eligible to subscribe to a fibre access service. This massive push to upgrade infrastructures must continue, improving the quality of connections and of fibre access operations, notably on certain especially accident-prone networks. In addition to rollout figures, Arcep will continue to monitor network quality of service indicators and to collect reports from end users, to help guide its regulatory actions. To this end, Arcep’s field visits and ongoing dialogue with elected officials and local authorities are particularly useful.

Laure de La Raudière, Arcep Chair

► The Post n° 56 - September 2022

European regulators reveal their ambitions for the digital sector’s Green Transition

It is now a foregone conclusion in France that, in addition to the benefits it bestows on other sectors of the economy by enabling them to reduce their environmental footprint, the digital sector must also reduce its own footprint, so that France can meet the commitments made under the Paris Agreement. Arcep has been given a major role in tackling this issue, alongside other institutions such as ADEME.

European telecom regulators’ collective involvement, through BEREC, has taken place in stages. Arcep and other regulators, such as the Finnish and Irish NRAs, worked patiently to persuade their counterparts of how crucial it was to take action on this issue, and this beyond digital’s contribution to the European Green Deal. And the groundwork is steadily being laid: the first stage was the adoption of digital sustainability as one of the main components of BEREC’s multiannual strategy (2021-2025). Followed by the creation of a permanent “Sustainability” working group co-chaired by Arcep, the only European regulator at the time with powers in this area.

The third stage of lift-off has just been activated: the first BEREC report on digital sustainability . After having consulted with and listened to stakeholders from well outside the usual purview, reaching beyond the conclusions stage, it delivers the first concrete ambitions for reducing the digital sector’s environmental footprint. Its recommendations are naturally in sync with the ones that Arcep sketched out during its national “Achieving digital sustainability” workshops. But it is its own little revolution, as it seeks to use regulatory tools to tackle environmental issues, for instance by encouraging operators to share certain parts of the network, and urging coordinated use of civil engineering and spectrum…

Some regulators complained about not having regulatory or enforcement tools at their disposal. But the discussions, and the workshops hosted by BEREC, along with the publication of this report persuaded every member of BEREC, here and abroad, that the desire for progress is what counts: desire and commitment precede the granting of newfound powers. And can even be the triggers.

Emmanuel Gabla, Member of the Arcep Executive Board

► The Post n° 55 - June 2022

The Green Transition and the economy's digitalisation: new challenges, new consumer protection and competition regulation tools

Supervisory and regulatory authorities are having to grapple with the accelerated pace of economic change and the new challenges ushed in by the digital economy. Which is why the Directorate-General for Competition, Consumer Affairs and Fraud Repression (DGCCRF) reorients the focus of its national survey programme on a regular basis. In 2022, a key focus is supporting the Green Transition (notably by targeting greenwashing and use of the term “refurbished”), along with regulation of digital economy stakeholders (electronic communication operators, online platforms and marketplaces).

To satisfy the need for adaptability and reactivity, in late 2021 DGCCRF adopted, for the first time, a new Consumer Code tool which creates the ability to de-list a platform from search engines and app stores, and even to block access to it. A stipulation was also added recently to the French Commercial Code that failures to comply with “Platform to business” regulations and anti-competitive practices could result in an injunction, and be subject to penalties, making it a powerful tool for putting an end to illicit practices.

At the European level, DGCCRF co-led the Digital Markets Act negotiations with the Directorate-General for Enterprise (DGE), newly concluded under the French presidency. This regulation must provide the ability to respond to the regulatory challenges posed by gatekeeper platforms, in real time.

Supervisory authorities must work closely together on these cross-cutting issues. DGCCRF knows that it can count on Arcep’s expertise on both environmental and digital matters.

Virginie Beaumeunier, Director-General of DGCCRF

► The Post n° 54 - April / May 2022

Facilitating businesses’ access to 5G

5G is a network innovation that holds a promise of real growth as it produces positive externalities in every economic sector. It also renders machine to machine communication efficient and helps directly improve capital productivity. The ability to keep that promise nevertheless depends on how 5G is appropriated, its ability to weave its way into the industrial, organisation and social fabric, and how it is used by businesses, administrations, universities and stakeholders across all vertical sectors.

Arcep has an important role to play in this appropriation. Frequencies can be assigned either to telecoms operators, who then design solutions for businesses, or directly to industry players that use them for their operations. Each assignment model has its own set of pros and cons, and striking the right balance depends on the types of company, their size, sector, uses, etc. Which is why a prior investigation was conducted into awarding this resource and stakeholders’ requirements (consultation with stakeholders and production of an Arcep report back in 2017) and into the best way to allocate these frequencies.

First, when assigning so-called “core” 5G frequencies, Arcep imposed a number of obligations on operators, including the obligation to activate the most innovative feature of 5G, namely slicing, by 2023 at the latest. Telecom operators also committed to granting reasonable requests from economic stakeholders, by providing them with bespoke solutions or by granting them direct local access to frequencies.

Second, it has supported private sector players’ request to have their own mobile network by issuing calls for proposals from industry stakeholders for 5G project trials, staring in 2017. After which it opened several frequency trial platforms. Launched in 2019, the trial platform for the 2.6 GHz band has already led to the deployment of private networks in a variety of sectors. Arcep assists these professional mobile networks in making a gradual transition to 5G in this band. A digital portal launched on 15 March 2022 also gives these players the ability to view available frequencies on a map, and to track the processing of their spectrum request.

In 2019, Arcep also created a trial platform for the 26 GHz band and designed a spectrum award model that is very open to economic stakeholders. Today, Arcep is completing this mechanism and, in concert with the Government, opened a new trial platform for the 3.8-4.2 GHz band on 15 March 2022.

But merely awarding spectrum is not enough. It is up to economic stakeholders to disseminate an innovation. It depends on the skills, training and selection of the engineers that design and deploy it. It also depends on certain enterprises not confiscating these innovations, and on the existence of free and fair competition that allows it to be appropriated by the entire industrial fabric. From a more general perspective, it depends on public policies on training and R&D, as well as industrial and competition policies.

Maya Bacache, member of the Arcep Executive Board

► The Post n° 53 - March 2022

Digital and the environment: a collective call to action

If digital services’ positive contributions no longer need to be proven, their impact on the environment is still very much a topic of discussion. As the proliferation of – often contradictory — studies and reports has been unable to settle the debate between those who see digital as a climate saviour and those who see it as a gravedigger, we need to look beyond these claims and analyse the many ambiguities of these technologies.

The Law on Reducing the digital carbon footprint, which I had the honour of bringing before the Senate, provides an initial regulatory framework for this process, and its extension increased Arcep’s powers in the area of environmental regulation. The study that Arcep carried out with ADEME on assessing digital’s environmental impact instils a “discourse on method” that is vital to establishing common benchmarks.

It is now up to us to join forces in working to curtail the environmental impact of digital technology, as much to combat the harmful effects of devices, networks, and certain practices, as to showcase the virtuous uses that make it a powerful lever for actions.

Patrick Chaize, Senator for the Ain, Vice-chair of the Senate Committee on Economic Affairs, Chair of Avicca

► The Post n° 52 - February 2022

Arcep celebrates its 25th anniversary

What a long way we’ve come since the creation of the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (ART) on 5 January 1997! Created to regulate the opening of France’s telecoms sector up to competition, its responsibilities have evolved over time to include the regulation of certain postal activities in 2005, and press distribution in 2019.

An independent authority, Arcep ensures that private actors’ growth and interests are compatible with general interest objectives, be it fair and effective competition, regional development, pluralism or the quality of the services provided, for the benefit of end users. It is rooted in pro-investment and pro-innovation regulation.

In the telecommunications sector, it champions the goal of every person in France having access to superfast internet access, anywhere in the country, at an affordable price – in a real and lasting fashion. Thanks to the commitment of private and public sector players, and to the regulatory framework set by Arcep, people in France today have among the least expensive mobile plans in the world, and France is the European leader in optical fibre deployment!

The Authority’s capacity to innovate is part of its DNA: it has been a driving force behind discussions within BEREC, the Body of European Regulators for Electronic Communications, over regulating Big Tech, and welcomes the 27 European NRAs’ common position on the Digital Markets Act.

For the past 25 years, Arcep has been able to reinvent itself to fulfil its mandate and continually look to the future. Our shared ambition is to continue the task of regulating begun in 1997 and, drawing on this experience, to tackle new challenges, and crafting regulation that takes full consideration of users’ satisfaction and environmental issues.

• Arcep’s New Year’s wishes video

Laure de La Raudière, Chair of Arcep

► The Post n° 51 - January 2022

Accompanying changes in the postal market

Safeguarding the Universal Postal Service has been one of Arcep’s responsibilities and one of its main concerns for some time. A responsibility because Arcep is tasked with ensuring compliance with universal service quality objectives, with issuing opinions of La Poste pricing, in addition to helping protect its future through a framework of fair competition. But a source of concern, too, as the structural decrease in the volume of mail could threaten the presence of postal services in the regions.

If the volume of mail items has been shrinking steadily for 13 years, 2020 marked a real turning point, with a decrease of close to 20% – resulting in a close to 15% decline in revenue for the sector as a whole, despite the regular hikes in the price of stamps by La Poste. And even though the competitive parcel delivery business continues to grow, thanks to e-commerce, it is not enough to offset letter delivery losses.

In the draft budget for 2022, the Government has chosen to support the postal market through these changes by compensating a portion of mail delivery deficits through a state compensation fund, rather than the corporate compensation fund that has never worked. It is Arcep that will evaluate the net cost of the universal postal service.

Arcep has also set up a postal services observatory, whose findings for 2020 have just been published. Focused initially on authorised postal operators’ activities, it was expanded to include data on parcel operators, delivering a snapshot of the sector’s evolution through a set of key indicators (volumes, revenue, jobs, investment).

Monique Liebert-Champagne, Arcep Executive Board member

► The Post n° 50 - November / December 2021

Fratel rising to the innovation challenge

As a discipline whose end goal is to achieve a state of equilibrium in the sectors in question, regulation needs to reinvent itself constantly, to attune its instruments to the latest global issues. Today, this includes the Internet of Things, artificial intelligence, e-commerce, 5G and possibly even 6G depending on the country, Fintech, especially in African countries, and network convergence.

We believe that Fratel is one of the best forums for tackling these issues, to share experiences in these areas and to address them as part of a collaborative process that takes the maturity of each market into account.

Beyond these aspects, safeguarding sacrosanct principles such as net neutrality provides the bedrock for promoting innovation in a world now dominated by digital platforms. In other words, with the advent of new players that position themselves as the providers of value-added services, more and more, electronic communications regulation is becoming simply digital market regulation. With the current ongoing convergence of networks, no regulator can operate in a vacuum, which is why the need to encourage co-regulation as an alternative mechanism to tackle new issues seems like the obvious way forward.

This regulation needs to be based on the idea of soft law, promoting compliance rather than repression.

On another level, notwithstanding the need to moderate platforms’ content, there must be no watering down of net neutrality as the principle that today undergirds the guaranteed right to information.

We should also remember that, regardless of the system in place in any given country, frequencies today constitute a powerful lever for promoting innovation, provided they are made available to new professions. This is also why, above and beyond the overriding policies proper to each region, FRATEL could emerge as a body that facilitates dialogue between stakeholders, including equipment suppliers, notably about different frequency bands, for instance during WRCs.

It is nevertheless also worth remembering that, while universal, these principles and issues are subject to scrutiny from various quarters, depending on the country and the regulators, taking each nation’s economic situation and standards into account. This is what gives regulation its charm: regardless of the model being used, its ultimate objective remains the same, namely, to achieve a state of balance.

All these conclusions converge upon the need to strengthen bodies like FRATEL that consistently tackle the issues surrounding electronic communications with brio, by hosting forums for dialogue with experts in the field, coupled with joint and accessible reports.

This is why, in my position of Chair of FRATEL for this term of office, a position that I am honoured and delighted to assume, I am calling for a consolidation of what has been achieved since the Federation’s creation, and for a commitment that continues to be fresh and new.

This call leads me to invite all FRATEL members to come out, en masse, to the organisation’s next meeting, which will be taking place in Dakar in November 2021.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank all the FRATEL members and experts for their commitment and active involvement throughout this term. Special thanks to France’s Regulatory Authority for Electronic communications, Postal affairs and Print media distribution (Arcep) for all of its coordination work, despite the Covid situation, to host online meetings so successfully.

Abdoul LY, Director-General of the Telecommunications and Postal Regulatory Authority (ARTP) of Senegal, Chair of Fratel

► The Post n° 49 - October 2021

New stages, new formula

The New Deal for Mobile and the “Plan France très haut débit” fibre rollout scheme delivered the impetus to make tremendous strides in bringing high quality internet access to people in France, to work remotely, to access healthcare, to learn, get cultured and be entertained. But dissatisfaction remains amongst the poorly covered, the poorly connected and the digitally deprived. At a time when deployments are progressing at a steady pace, and major inroads being made into rural areas, Arcep’s The Post is changing, to give more room in its columns to territories, to their users and to environmental issues.

Since its inaugural issue in 2016, the “Field Notes” section of our monthly newsletter had delivered an account of Arcep’s trips to talk to local stakeholders and to take stock of the progress being made on networks locally. From now own, a local official will be invited to talk about a specific topic or innovation that can serve as an example to other local authorities.

With its “J’alerte l’Arcep” platform, the Authority gives every user – be they an individual, a business, local authority, developer or consumer – the ability to report issues they have encountered with their telecoms, internet, postal or press distribution network’s operation. The reports that have been logged will provide the fuel for a new section: “Dispatches from J’alerte l’Arcep” – delivering a monthly update on the issue of the moment, in a fully transparent fashion.

Finally, because everything is now viewed through the lens of environmental impact, a new “Achieving digital sustainability” section will be dedicated to the work that Arcep is doing in this area, as well as the ecosystem’s many initiatives. The goal: to help raise awareness and rally to action through information. And to make environmental protection a new regulatory chapter.

And now on to the “new Post”, and its first back to school/back to work issue!

Joëlle Cottenye, Arcep Executive Board member

► The Post n° 48 - september 2021

Striving for more connected and inclusive territories

Since its creation, the Banque des Territoires has been working unflaggingly to reduce regional divides. The digital divide is the first territorial divide: today, households, businesses and public services are either connected to a superfast network or they’re not, and this is intolerable. The Covid-19 crisis proved how important digital technology now is. Everybody in France must have access to resilient digital infrastructures, and enjoy powerful digital services.

As part of the Caisse des Dépôts recovery plan, and to achieve 100% connection for the population by 2025, the Banque des Territoires adopted a three-pronged response plan: physical network security, supplementing superfast mobile coverage in the overseas territories, and expanding fixed and mobile coverage in every territory, especially the most isolated ones. The plan is a response to those needs that have not been satisfied by public or private sector commitments, to accelerate the pace of regional digital development. 120 million euros will be invested in these projects, and 150 million euros in loans will help finance local public sector initiatives.

More recently, the Banque des Territoires joined a consortium that acquired a 50% stake in Orange Concessions which has connected more than 4.5 million households in France via public initiative networks. This strategic investment allows the Banque des Territoires to expand its striking power to help territories complete their digital transition, and particularly fibre deployments in rural areas.

A long-term investor, the Banque des Territoires, is striving to making every territory – be it rural, suburban, mountainous or coastal – more connected. We are fully committed to working alongside territories and our fellow citizens to reduce the digital divide and, in so doing, territorial divides as well.

Olivier Sichel, Managing Director, Caisse des Dépôts, Director of the Banque des Territoires

► The Post n°47 - June/July 2021

A new record year for telecoms investment, driven by fibre

14.3 billion euros: this is the total operator spending recorded by Arcep in its Observatory of electronic communications markets for 2020.

This total includes three main components:

- 2.8 billion euros spent on 5G frequencies. The most recent acquisitions had been of 700 MHz frequencies for 4G rollouts, in 2015;
- 3.2 billion euros invested in mobile;
- and 8.3 billion euros in fixed networks.

Operators’ investments in fixed access included 3.9 billion euros spent on fixed superfast local loops. Over the past six years, close to 14.3 billion euros have been invested in these installations. If we include public funding, 24.2 million sockets have thus been deployed. And demand is strong, with 10.4 million FttH subscriptions at the end of last year.

Investments in mobile networks have enabled virtually complete 4G deployment, the supply of increasingly dense nationwide coverage, and better quality of service.

The process of upgrading digital infrastructures in France is well underway, and expected to be completed over the next few years. Which is something that will benefit everyone.

François Lions, Arcep Board member

► The Post N° 46 - May 2021

Goodbye copper, hello fibre!

The small rural village of Lévis Saint Nom in the Chevreuse Valley, population 1,732, was fully passed for fibre back in 2016. It took only weeks for the highly anticipated new network to replace the legacy copper system.

By summer 2020, when Orange proposed running a pioneer trial on shutting down its copper network, there were still some one hundred subscribers connected to the old system. The village agreed take part in this ambitious project, on two conditions:

- the switchover must be neutral in terms of the cost and quality of service for residents;

- not a single vulnerable person would have their telephone line cut.

We kept in touch with the town’s residents about the project, to encourage and reassure them.

Any issues that arise need to be solved quickly: hence the copper lines that have been maintained as part of municipal contingency plans, hence the supply of remote assistance systems for our elderly citizens, notably when there is a power cut, hence the operation of alarm systems…

Other unexpected issues, requiring the involvement of the Community centre for social action: some residents could not remember whether or not they have a copper line. Others, who see the telephone as a public utility, expect their operator to handle the switchover completely, without requiring them to do a thing…

Status report as of 31 March 2021: 100% of the town’s residents are now connected to the upgraded and future optical fibre network, with the added bonus that the overhead lines have been removed, which is great news for the environment!

Anne Grignon, mayor of Lévis Saint Nom

On 10 March of this year, Laure de La Raudière travelled to Lévis Saint Nom to talk with local authorities, Orange and commercial operators about the process of switching customers over from copper to fibre. The incumbent carrier’s announcement that it would be shutting down its legacy copper system by 2030 is a massive project in which Arcep has a role of guarantor, as much with respect to the timetable, as protecting users’ interests and market competition.

► The Post n°45 - April 2021

A strategic authority

After 13 years as a Deputy, it is an honour for me to serve my country once again, this time as the Chair of Arcep.

Arcep is a strategic authority because it regulates services that people in France use in their everyday lives: fixed and mobile calling and internet access, mail and print media distribution, across the whole of France. Its decisions are thus vital to satisfying our fellow citizens’ legitimate expectations, in every part of the country, but also to creating the conditions that will enable regulated players to grow and innovate.

Strategic too because its actions are at the heart of major societal transformations, tied to the digitalisation of every aspect of our lives. Arcep will continue to contribute to the debates on these issues and challenges, as it is doing on digital technology’s environmental impact and regulating leading internet platforms (i.e. the digital gatekeepers) as part of the Digital Markets Act, in both France and at the European level. Together, with the members of the Executive Board and our teams, we have some exciting challenges ahead.

Laure de La Raudière, Arcep Chair

► Read the Post n° 44

Empowerment

As my term as Chairman of Arcep is coming to an end just days from now, I’ve posted a video to share some impressions of my six years at the head of this institution. If I had to sum up my guiding force during that time it would be: “empowerment”. To be an authority that authorises. So that the networks that are so vital to the life of our societies develop as a common good. 

My action has intersected with a personal belief: as the public sector grapples with a crisis of public trust, it needs to reinvent itself. By designing the government as a network, one that is capable of channelling the society’s forces to rise to the challenges we face today.

It has been an honour to serve my country for these past six years, and to enrich our fellow citizens’ opportunities to communicate. Thank you to all of the players, who are the beating heart of our country’s networks, to the authorities that supervise us and our public sector partners, to the Arcep Board, its General Directorate, and all of its teams.

I wish you all a very happy and healthy holiday season. 

Sébastien Soriano, Chairman of Arcep

► Read the Post n° 43

The challenges facing BEREC in 2021

Observing the effects of the European 2019 Electronic Communications Code will be a central part of BEREC’s work in 2021. Focused up until now on drafting guidelines for the Code’s implementation, our work will shift towards analysing market developments and technological change.

Another aspect of BEREC’s work will be ensuring that very high capacity networks are available everywhere in Europe. In keeping with the objectives set forth in the European Commission’s ”Gigabit Society” plan, whose targets include ensuring every household has access to speeds of 100 Mb/s in 2025, we will work to remove the obstacles to optical fibre and 5G network deployment.

Looking beyond the networks, BEREC will work to build cooperation between regulators on the topic of online platforms. It is a complex and multi-dimensional issue, which encompasses data protection as much as competition-related questions that we need to come at in a cross-cutting fashion, to be able to find a balanced way to tackle all of the existing issues.

BEREC will also address the growing topic of sustainable development, echoing the tenets of the European Commission’s Green New Deal. We will examine how new gen networks, fibre and 5G, can develop productivity gains that will lead to more sustainable solutions and help bolster the green transition.

Also on the agenda will be an analysis of the Covid-19 public health crisis, from a network standpoint. The crisis accelerated the pace of society’s digital transition and laid bare the need for reliable connectivity. We must draw lessons from this experience that enable us to increase the resilience of our societies.

Michel Van Bellinghen, President of the Belgian Institute for Postal Services and Telecommunications (IBPT) and BEREC Chair in 2021

► Read the Post n° 42

Arcep has issued operators with a set of recommendations regarding 5G coverage maps. In so doing, the regulator ensures that consumers have high quality information enabling them to make informed choices.

But why is it important users have proper information about the market? First and foremost, to protect consumers. People only have complete freedom of choice as consumers when they are able to make informed decisions. If, in a competitive market, price is one effective source of information, this is no longer the case when there is information asymmetry between sellers and buyers. The aim therefore is to safeguard against consumers being misled.

The deployment of a new technology, namely 5G, carries an added challenge: economic development. The history of technological progress is replete with examples of magnificent ideas and inventions that never make the transition to innovation, that are never adopted by the market, either because consumers remain locked into an older technology, or because fears about the new technology and wariness sap demand, or perhaps because its utility has not been made clear. Transparency over a technology’s opportunities, risks, reality and constraints are vital to building trust in trade and to the market’s development.

Lastly, it is also important to protect non-consumers from the external effects of technologies that have an impact on every citizen. This is why Arcep has joined the debate on the environmental impact of digital technology.

In the information economy, the power lies with those who own and manipulate information. It is therefore the regulator’s job to ensure that this power stays in the right hands: i.e. consumers’.

Maya Bacache, Arcep Executive Board member

► Read the Post n° 41

Europe must arm itself with ambitious legislation for the economic regulation of digital platforms

At a time when Big Tech is making it increasingly challenging to ensure that digital markets operate fairly, and that users are able to access the online content and services of their own choosing, the Digital Services Act that is currently being drafted by the European Commission must endow Europe with ambitious legislation in this area for the first time.

Working in concert with several Member States, notably Germany, Italy and Poland, we requested that the European Union implement an ex ante regulatory instrument centred around the globe’s largest and most “influential” digital platforms. We also share the desire to introduce this regulation with the Netherlands. These rules must apply to a broad array of players, including operating systems, and their influential nature must be ascertained based on a range of criteria. To protect the markets from being captured and subject to predation by these platforms, it is imperative that the regulatory authority that will be designated by this legislation be armed with a broad set of tools, and be empowered to impose “bespoke” remedies.

Here, I would like to salute the instigating role that Arcep has played in public debates over regulating digital technology, and to extend my thanks for its active participation in the work being done by the “Régulations des Plateformes” task force which is in charge of establishing French authorities’ position on the European debate over the Digital Services Act.

Thomas Courbe, General Director of the Directorate-General for Enterprise (DGE)

© Photo A Salesse

► Read the Post n° 40

Working to achieve digital sustainability

Digital technology as a whole (devices, networks, software, datacentres, etc.) consumes a great deal of energy: generating 2% of all greenhouse gasses in France in 2019, and rising. Digital products are heavy power consumers, both in the production stage and when being used. And any progress towards greater sobriety is often cancelled out by the rebound effect. Arcep is of course very concerned about this issue, and published an initial brief on the matter in 2019.

Today, it is the deployment of 5G that is galvanising everyone’s attention. What impact will it have on the environment? One fascinating aspect of this new mobile technology is the breadth of applications it enables: teleworking, factories of the future, smart territories, telemedicine… At constant levels of consumption, 5G is more energy-efficient than its predecessors. Beyond the aforementioned uses, however, which could have a positive effect on those sectors’ environmental footprint, it could also be used massively for network gaming or watching films. These activities are not equally beneficial to society, of course. Could some of them – which may even be considered toxic when striving for digital sobriety – be moderated, or even avoided? Even more than deployment, the central question for 5G is how it will be used.

Looking beyond this very current topic, digital technology’s carbon footprint needs to be tackled as a whole: how to achieve the right interplay of proactive fibre and mobile network rollouts while taking regional needs into account? What role can sustainable design for applications play? What changes in user behaviour can we expect to see? etc. To this end, Arcep has launched an open and transparent platform devoted to “Achieving digital sustainability”. The aim is to weave environmental imperatives into concrete acts of digital regulation.

How can we achieve digital sustainability? Meaningful debate begins by eschewing attitudes of luddite obstinacy or slavish devotion to the gods of technology – to then work together on choosing the digital world we want to live in.

Serge Abiteboul, Arcep Executive Board member

► Read The Post n° 39

Internet and the green transition

I am delighted to be penning this brief editorial on a topic that is becoming a source of concern for more and more of our fellows, both in France and in many countries across the globe. They are starting to ask themselves the question about internet and, by extension, digital tech as a whole: is it an entirely positive transition accelerator or are there also negative aspects to this growing digitisation?

The sector symbolises the paradoxes underlying the green transition’s implementation. The recently passed law on the circular economy also marks an important milestone in society’s questioning of the greenhouse gas emissions of our internet-driven lives, at a time when the sector’s GHG emissions are skyrocketing.

The current lockdown has proven how vital it is to have network infrastructures that work during times of crisis as, today more than ever before, data traffic is a major issue in our society. As crucial as they are, these data that allow us to stay in touch, to continue to work, to stay informed, to educate our children and to be entertained, must not result in our activities creating an even greater carbon footprint.

So we need to continue to make our networks more energy efficient, as is the case with optical fibre rollouts, to inform users of the greenhouse gas emissions that their use of digital services generate, and to offers solutions for all of the stakeholders working to achieve “digital sobriety”.

If the current trajectory of technological developments is reducing the size of and energy consumed by devices, we are also seeing a transfer of the impact over to those stages for which data are less reliable: extraction of non-renewable resources, end of life processing for devices and internet usage.

Arnaud Leroy, President of France’s Environment and Energy Management Agency, Ademe

► Read The Post n°38

Networks as a common good

The unprecedented crisis that we are currently experiencing has provided a powerful reminder of the degree to which communication networks – internet, fixed and mobile telephone, mail, parcel, print media distribution – are a vital infrastructure in our country’s operation, and a fundamental part of the freedom, equality and fraternity that our country holds so dear.

The outstanding mobilisation of telecoms, postal and print media companies’ teams in the field, and of the whole fabric of the small and medium businesses, local stakeholders and associations that surround them, has made one reality possible: the networks are holding steady! Not always under the usual conditions, but they are holding steady. A feat that commands respect! Let us also salute the contribution of those “heavy” network users, VoD suppliers, print media publishers… who are doing their part. And especially to all of the users who have taken it upon themselves to switch from 4G to Wi-Fi, staggering video viewing across the day, and waiting patiently for their mail or parcels to arrive. Thank you!

The Arcep manifesto of “networks as a common good” is not a mere statement of principle. It is a profound reality, made manifest by this mobilisation of each and everyone of us, by this sense of shared purpose.

It is also an imperative that we, as regulator, will continue to honour throughout the crisis, to ensure a continuity of service, including for the most vulnerable among us, accessibility for people with disabilities, to keep users informed, protect the secrecy of correspondence and net neutrality… On this last point, I would like to reiterate how fully net neutrality is a cardinal rule in network governance. It is to some extent the “law of the crowd” versus the “law of the strongest” versus the arbitrary. Arcep is committed to ensuring this principle remains in full force under the current singular circumstances.

And, finally, we are working to prepare for what comes next, once all of this is over. To confirm an unwavering drive to outfit our country with competitive telecoms networks, massively and rapidly: to connect every household, every SME with optical fibre, and deploy 4G wherever it is still needed; to launch 5G while ensuring balanced regional rollouts. We must also subject technology to a greater sense of accountability, particularly from an environmental perspective. And bring back to the fore the need to expand telecoms regulation to include devices’ operating systems, those powerful network checkpoints that no watchdog is watching. A host of challenges then, to which we will respond with a full-throated belief: networks as a common good.

Sébastien Soriano, Chairman of Arcep

► Read the Post - Public Health Crisis Special Issue

New cooperation initiatives between Arcep and CSA

Because of their respective mandates, Arcep and French broadcasting authority, CSA, are regularly required to engage in a dialogue and cooperate on issues that fall under both authorities’ purview. This takes place as much in the periodic regulators’ meetings as in a bilateral fashion, notably as part of mutual requests for input. So it was that CSA recently solicited Arcep’s opinion on upgrading the digital terrestrial TV (DTT) platform, an issue that is currently the subject of a public consultation.

Beyond that, and given the challenges raised by the digital transition, Sébastien Soriano and I wanted to develop new forms of cooperation as part of an agreement that we will be signing in the coming weeks. A joint Arcep – CSA unit will be tasked with deepening the technical and economic analysis of digital markets that fall under both authorities’ purview, as much in terms of usage and distribution, as the relationships between stakeholders and value chains. Lending the two authorities’ combined expertise to the task, the concrete manifestation of this cooperation will include joint studies and publications. It could also involve other stakeholders such as CNIL and France’s Competition Authority.

We have also begun to work together on protecting minors against pornographic content on the internet. Assembled by the Government in December, the concerned operators agreed to take action, under the aegis of Arcep and CSA. These operators are being called upon to deploy an information portal on parental control systems, which are often not activated. Together, Arcep and CSA will form a monitoring committee, to track the progress of these efforts.

As Professor Frison-Roche said, inter-regulation – which has become vital in today’s digital universe – seeks to “set solutions in motion”: this is precisely the frame of mind that underpins Arcep and CSA’s collaboration.

Roch-Olivier Maistre, President of CSA

► Read The Post n° 35

5G: kick-off time at last…

At the latest Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, one topic completely overshadowed all the rest: 5G was arriving at last. And not only would it usher in a swath of innovations as every new generation does but, the predictions told us, 5G would actually usher in a new era. It would enable the advent of connected objects (machine-to-machine), it would abolish latency (or almost) thanks to the power of edge computing, and so opening the way for myriad applications across the board, from video games to more highly technical fields such as remote surgery. Finally, this new fifth generation would be a crucial asset in supporting and amplifying manufacturing and its smart factories of the future…

So soaring was the paean that one would be forgiven for being a little sceptical… And yet, all of the pieces are gradually falling into place. When it has reached full maturity (and broken its ties with 4G), the advent of 5G will mark a far more fundamental change than the arrival of 4G or 3G had been. And this is why, when setting the terms conditions for awarding these frequencies, Arcep took a significantly different approach to the previous frameworks.

If the technology is structure-giving, if it is a tool of economic development, it needs to irrigate the regions. Something that must be thought out and organised at the planning stage. This is why the coverage obligations included in the terms and conditions attached to licences to use 3.4-3.8 GHZ band frequencies are far greater than those put into place when launching previous mobile network generations… and are no doubt among the most ambitious in Europe, if not beyond. Arcep has also set ambitious targets for covering roadways and ensuring indoor coverage, to fully satisfy consumers’ true expectations, be they individuals or businesses.

Because 5G will only be a success if everyone is on board: this means that EMF exposure issues need to be resolved through dialogue, consultation and education. This may also mean that we will need to use 5G properly, responsibly, one might say greenly, as we become increasingly aware that the digital tech universe clearly needs to be concerned about its ecological footprint and how to control it.

So, yes, it is kick-off time for 5G… but this is only the beginning. Dare I paraphrase a former Prime Minister by saying that, “the road may be straight, but it has a steep slope”?

Emmanuel Gabla, Arcep Executive Board member

► Read The Post n° 34

En route for print media distribution regulation

The Law on the modernisation of print media distribution, which reforms the “Bichet Act”, recently came into force in France. It confirms the fundamental principles that govern the print media sector, while also introducing new structural provisions to ensure it runs smoothly. And it gives Arcep the responsibility to regulate it.

Arcep runs on a culture of dialogue. We are committed to listening fully to each and every stakeholder: publishers, of both daily newspapers and magazines, encompassing news, general interest, specialised and entertainment publications equally. But also players involved in distribution, the delivery companies and news agents, distributors and retailers who interact with readers, the nuts and bolts of the nationwide system. The sector’s players can already contact the Arcep department in charge of print media distribution, by sending an e-mail to: distribution-presse(at)arcep.fr.

Building on the work done in the past by the Regulatory authority for press distribution (ARDP) and the High Council of press distribution (CSMP), we are committed to making the interests of readers, as both consumers and citizens, our core tenet, to ensure that they have broad nationwide access to a diverse and high quality print media, at an affordable price. One of the very first tasks will be to examine the choices to give print media consumers, working in tandem with all of the industry professionals, but especially with news agents who are not always able to display all of the publications available.

It is with humility and ambition, but also with pride, that we undertake this new responsibility.  

Monique Liebert-Champagne and François Lions, Arcep Executive Board members

► Read The Post n° 33

WRC-19: what is at stake?

The biggest challenge at the upcoming World Radiocommunication Conference (WRC-19) – taking place in Egypt from 28 October to 22 November – will be revising the regulatory framework in a way that encourages technological innovation with the deployment of IMT-2020 (5G), the stations installed on High Altitude Platforms (HAPs) and non-geostationary satellites, while continuing to protect existing services. In addition to vital questions relating to transport (sea, ground and air) safety, earth observation, weather forecasting and climate monitoring will also be examined.

New players’ interest in obtaining frequencies above 24 GHz will also be discussed. Coming from economic sectors (health, security, automotive industry, utilities, heavy industry, etc.) other than telecommunications, these new players want access to high-range frequencies. This demand is tied primarily to uses enabled by 5G that require ultra low latency and high reliability, very high speed connections and the ability to connect a large number of devices. Frequency ranges between 24, 25 GHz and 86 GHz offer the ability to have wide frequency bands that could satisfy some of these new players’ spectrum needs.

Mario Maniewicz, Director of the ITU’s Radiocommunication Bureau

Key events for the spectrum world, the purpose of World Radiocommunication Conferences (WRC) is to amend the Radiocommunications Act, an international treaty between ITU member states that aims to facilitate fair and equal access to radio spectrum and to geostationary and non geostationary satellite orbits, and to address potential interference between radio systems in different countries. The conference is held every four years, and follows an agenda that is decided at the previous WRC. The National Frequency Agency (ANFR) will head up the French delegation of which Arcep will be a member.

► Read The Post n°32

On not seeing the forest for the stick 

There is no one way to regulate. Since the political decision to open the telecom sector up to competition more than twenty years ago, Arcep has been patiently constructing regulation that one could qualify as pragmatic. By focusing on the future rather than punishing past transgressions; by opening the way for entrepreneurs with an open-minded approach; by combining the best of private investment and local government initiative, all while ensuring a reasonable transition for what was once France Telecom. Our actions are not driven by any underlying ideology, our sole purpose being to provide the people of France with high quality and plural communication networks that are widely available nationwide, and at competitive prices.

The Board has followed the same trajectory over the past several years: by working to secure a demanding but progressive evolution of the roaming agreement between Free and Orange; by proposing an unprecedented New Deal for Mobile to the Government; by reaching an agreement with Orange rather than imposing obligations on its fibre rollouts; by issuing demanding but constructive opinions on AMII (areas where the Government has issued a call for investment letters of intent) and AMEL (calls for expressions of interest for local projects) procedures…

In some instances, our European neighbours have chosen different paths: imposing functional separation of the incumbent carrier; widespread fibre rollouts by local authorities; top-down LLU pricing; high-priced frequency auctions… 

France’s telecoms market is regularly held up as an example in both Europe and around the world. If operators should be the first to take credit for this – with men and women who are working every day on deploying networks and outfitting the country – Arcep’s pragmatic regulation has also had a hand in it.

But pragmatism is not something that can be decreed. It requires stakeholders to have enough trust in the system’s solidity to commit to it, to “play the game”. Arcep’s penalty procedure – which, it should be remembered, has only resulted in actual penalties in exceptional cases – plays a decisive role here. Not for its own sake, but to create this trust and shared momentum. The best example is the competition and network coverage commitments that operators can make. Without oversight or penalties, these commitments would be words on paper. 

The regulator’s stick hides the French model’s forest. Disputing Arcep’s power to impose penalties, even though it was recently reinstated after having been rescinded on the grounds that it was unconstitutional – and we can be confident that the current text has solid legal standing – is not simply a litigation procedure. It means defying the pragmatic spirit of regulation à la française.

Arcep’s Board

► Read The Post n°31

Growing the clientele, ensuring their satisfaction, verifying suppliers’ products and services, diversifying the supply chain, overseeing the company’s operations and production quality, handling its financial management and accounting, motivating staff, hiring, keeping pace with the latest innovations… are just some of the jobs a company head needs to do, including those who run micro, small and medium businesses.

Today, all of these functions rely heavily on digital tools: e‑commerce, cloud, cooperative tools, State-as-a-platform services… making network connectivity all the more vital. Networks too are in the throes of their own revolution (FttH, IoT, PSTN switch-off...), largely in a drive to improve services, but sometimes at the price of rendering things more complex.

Arcep has made the business connectivity market one of its top priorities. It is working to open up a broader range of choice for every enterprise, as much in terms of technologies as quality and pricing tiers.

It also wants to give SME company heads the means to leverage competition between operators: this is the purpose of the “BUSINESS TELECOMS – Internet, fixed and mobile telephone services: a practical guide to choosing the right products” produced in collaboration with a host of partners.

France boasts one of the world’s most competitive telecoms markets for consumers: the same must be true for small and medium enterprises!

François Lions, Arcep Executive Board member

► Read The Post n°30

9.8 billion euros, increasing by 40% in four year: operators’ investments testify to a sizeable and ongoing push in spending, which is vital to meeting the country’s needs.

But what do these figures actually means for people in France? The benefits are clear: rollouts are progressing nationwide, network coverage and quality levels are both on the rise. They are making it possible to monitor how users’ behaviour is evolving and enable enterprises in their digital transformation. From a very concrete perspective, the regions are benefiting more and more from fibre access, whose progress in 2018 and the steady pace of deployment were the main sources of increased spending this year. 13.5 million homes passed for fibre, which represents an additional 7.9 million access lines installed in three years. Spending on mobile networks has meant that users are enjoying broader 4G coverage, which now extends to 65% of the country (+20 points YoY). A progression that is keeping pace with the explosion of mobile use in France, and data traffic that has doubled.

Up next: 5G. Arcep will remain committed to pro-investment regulation, once again pushing operators to ensure nationwide coverage and connectivity.

Joëlle Cottenye, Arcep Executive Board member

► Read The Post n°29

The State must be able to reinvent itself, to stay with the times and fulfil its duties

At the heart of our relationship with the State lies an aporia: as the guarantor of the general interest, the State is at the root of our social contract, but it is also vilified by those who view government action as the root of all our current evils.

This gives way to two conclusions: the State is and must remain a central force in rising to the challenges our country is facing today; but it must also be able to reinvent itself, to modernise and reform to keep pace with our changing world and to meet citizens’ needs.

The birth of regulatory authorities is one example of a successful change in the institutional landscape, and one that must now be put fully to work: the rising influence of these authorities does not render “traditional” government obsolete. It remains the irreplaceable guarantor of fundamental balances.

The culture of norms that too often reigns in an administration also needs to be challenged when it does not always achieve the necessary progress on the ground. In an ever-changing economic, social and technological environment, public policymakers need to take government action that is both responsible and bold. In particular, this means changing the way the public sector works, to encourage innovation within government agencies.

There is a tremendous wellspring of energy and intelligence in the public sector. Which needs to be mobilised and especially deployed to the right places, to come in line with citizens’ expectations, and underpin a more adaptable society capable of meeting the challenges of our times.

Bruno Lasserre, Vice-President of the Conseil d’Etat

► Read The Post n°28

When the telecommunications regulatory authority was created, just over 20 years ago, its mandate was to open the telecoms market up to competition. Its responsibilities have expanded since then, and Arcep has become a major player in regional digital development. They key issues today: developing fibre access nationwide and improving both local and mobile connectivity.

Things are moving forward on both fronts, thanks to operators’ massive investments, local authorities’ commitments and the State’s proactive approach. Arcep has an important part to play here, in encouraging operators to invest but also in ensuring that they are meeting their commitments and obligations:

• for fixed services, this includes operators’ commitments in those parts of the country where the Government has issued a call for investment letters of intent (called “zones AMII” in French), and in areas targeted by calls for expressions of interest for local projects (“zones AMEL”) and in areas covered by private investment;  
• for mobile services, this includes tracking the progress of the New Deal by giving local authorities and users the tools they need to assess operators’ efforts.

In a number of regions, investments need to be coordinated or pooled to avoid inefficient network overlaps or coverage holes. Nobody must be overlooked: telecoms networks, which are an essential infrastructure for the economy and for guaranteeing the freedom to communicate, must benefit everybody and develop as a common good.

On 26 March, Arcep will be play host to decision-makers, local authorities and operators for its Smart Territories conference, whose theme this year will be Commitment. Commitment from everyone, for the benefit for the economy and regional development.

Monique Liebert-Champagne, Arcep Executive Board member

► Read the Post n° 27

The internet that we once dreamed of is now under threat. This free and open platform, a common good for all humanity, fostering open access to information, education and culture for everyone, and enabling permissionless innovation is today having to contend with a host of dangers:

• the proliferation of cyber threats, disinformation and interference in democratic processes, the internet being used to commit crimes or abet terrorism, all of which are now a serious menace and triggering a new kind of arms race;
• the virtual monopolies enjoyed by certain companies, against which the usual regulatory tools appear ill-suited and hard to enforce, and the impact of business models built around grabbing and keeping users’ attention;
• the swift rise of certain new areas of research, such as artificial intelligence, which require collective thinking about the ethics and social values that must guide these developments.

To tackle these dangers, France has embarked on a deeply committed diplomatic mission to promote openness, net neutrality, a safe and stable cyberspace, the protection of fundamental rights, including privacy, and safeguard democracy.

But a commitment from the State alone is not enough to achieve these goals. It requires a commitment from everyone: businesses, civil society, research. The battle is far from over, and things are heating up…

Henri Verdier, France’s Ambassador for Digital Affairs

►Read the Post n° 26

European regulators and the Code - new tools, same role

In 2018, I took over the Chairmanship of BEREC from Sébastien Soriano, who held this position in 2017. What we shared in our role was the focus on the negotiations on the new European Electronic Communications Code. While in 2017 BEREC adopted its position on the Commission proposal, it was my task to reply to the many compromise proposals tabled until an agreement was found mid-2018. In the meantime the Code has entered into force and has to be transposed into national law.

Many discussions are already taking place about the impact of the new tools foreseen in the Code like Wholesale-only, Co-investment and symetric regulation. To me, these new rules signal a shift in paradigm that apparently is about to take place in the market. What was perceived impossible economically just a few years ago, that new third infrastructures are being built, can be observed in ever more markets.

Operators join forces to co-invest in fibre, Open Access fibre networks are popping up across Europe, getting the backing from investors. This is good news for Europe and an encouraging development with its sustainability still to be shown. However, also in this changing landscape the challenge of regulators remains to stay vigilant and to safeguard effective competition, being the best driver for efficient investment. With new tools at hand and drawing on 20 years of experience I think we are well prepared for this task.

Johannes Gungl, BEREC Chairman 2018, CEO for Telecommunications and Postal Services of the Austrian Regulatory Authority for Broadcasting and Telecommunications

► Read The Post n° 25

The first mobile phone call was made in 1973, a mere 45 years ago. Several generations of mobile technology have followed since then… and at an increasingly accelerated pace as demand for applications and connectivity has grown. Today, the starting pistol for the global 5G race has already been fired, even though 4G rollouts are not yet complete!

5G is as much an evolution as a revolution. Evolution because its first stated uses will focus on increasing the density of 4G networks and completing ultrafast mobile coverage. But 5G’s promised innovations, flexibility and spectacular gains in speed will also make it an industrial revolution: a tremendous enabler of vertical industries’ digitisation, which will be the main 5G market next to consumers. This economic challenge makes its swift deployment a national imperative.

Here, France is still on track. Frequency allocations are well underway: the 700 MHz band has already been allocated, procedures for the C and L and mmWave bands could take place in 2019, and commercial launches in 2020. But frequencies are not the be all and end all. Organising new ecosystems and conducting vital use case trials also require both operators and vertical industry stakeholders to step up: a full commitment from everyone – to test economic use cases as much as technical feasibility – is crucial.

Arcep is well aware that it has a role not merely that of frequency allocator, but also one of facilitator. And it is fully committed to that role, deploying the needed resources and setting a demanding timetable. So the ball is now in economic stakeholders’ court. It is up to them to ensure the successful transition to the industries and services of the future.

Pierre-Jean Benghozi, Arcep Executive Board Member

► Read The Post n° 24

Telecoms and audiovisual: the first step to getting along, is listening

Some portray audiovisual media and telecommunications as brothers at war. I don’t see it that way. Networks and the creative process form a virtuous circle wherein each feeds to the other’s bounty. In today’s world dominated by Big Tech, the future audiovisual act is an opportunity to offer up a shared vision, one that goes beyond the “narcissism of petty differences” we can sometimes get stuck in by the issues we tackle on a daily basis. It is in this spirit that Arcep has made three proposals to enable audiovisual services to be masters of their destiny in the digital transformation.

This is the same state of mind that drives Arcep when considering the future of digital terrestrial TV (DTT). Having reflected on the consequences that changing user habits, the growing popularity of TV over IP boxes, on mobiles or simply online have had on terrestrial broadcasting reception (rooftop antennae), in June Arcep proposed putting an end to 12 years of regulating broadcasting service provider, TDF. Does it make sense to maintain a pro-competition action confined to only terrestrial technology, in perpetuity, at a time when more and more avenues are being used to broadcast TV programmes, at the expense of terrestrial? Would it not be wiser to provide these avenues with the guarantee that they too can access these new options under good conditions?

This proposal nevertheless surprised stakeholders, and Arcep is committed to being a good listener. The regulator must send out the right signals to support technological transitions, but also to set the right pace. This is why Arcep ultimately decided to postpone its decision for two years, during which time the current regulation will remain in effect, and so give stakeholders the time they need to make the transition. This decision will result in the publication of a new document in the coming weeks.
In exchange, Arcep is calling on industry stakeholders and public authorities to listen to the warning it is sending out about the emergence of new intermediaries between TV channels and viewers. Currently required to negotiate with ISPs for access to their boxes, TV channels – which will increasingly become apps not only on the TV screen, but also on other screen-based devices and smart speakers – will have to negotiate with the internet giants to be able to reach TV viewers. With the resulting danger that our shared culture will have to bow down to the almighty market overlords.

If thriving innovation starts off as a good thing, let us also keep in mind that, in the past, we were able to extract from the rules that govern the market, methods for distributing cultural content, and to guarantee a principle of free and universal access to knowledge. This is the idea of cultural exception, which we find reflected in the single price charged for books, press distribution, and to some extent net neutrality as well. This is the principle that needs to be revived for the digital age, so that we can continue to come together over a shared culture.

Sébastien Soriano, Chairman of Arcep

► Read The Post n°23

Europe’s new General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) has been in effect for scarcely four months, but its ripple effects are already being felt.

For businesses, this means adapting more fully to this new data-centric culture in which protecting people’s privacy and innovation need to go in hand in hand to build an environment of trust. Clearly a massive effort to be made, especially by SMEs, but I’m convinced that it is a winning move for Europe which has chosen here the path of ethical and sustainable growth.

The ripple effects also include the normative influence that Europe is having on this issue. California recently adopted a law that draws its inspiration from the European model. Japan signed an adequacy agreement with Europe during the summer to facilitate data transfers, and Argentina is working on a similar law.

A ripple effect too for the people who have embraced these new rights and are counting on regulatory authorities to enforce them. In France, data protection authority CNIL saw a 56% jump in customer complaints in four months.

CNIL needs to be able to support and channel the mighty impact of the GDPR, keeping pace with the power of digital technology and the expectations it fosters. This is a considerable challenge for our institution, set at the crossroads of potentially sizeable economic and strategic conflicts.

And a challenge that is not ours alone but a collective one, as it is vital that European authorities cooperate on all cross-border issues.

Diplomacy, regulation and pragmatism will need to work as one to ensure the GDPR can keep its promises.

Isabelle Falque-Pierrotin, Chair of CNIL

► Read The Post n°22

Why the net neutrality debate remains relevant

On June 13 this year, BEREC and TRAI released a joint statement on net neutrality.

Why was it important for the two bodies to come together on this issue? For a variety of reasons, and especially due to the interplay of opposing tensions inherent in the policy:

1. Net neutrality is easy to explain in the inexact language of everyday use. But difficult to describe with the precision that would stand up to legal scrutiny.
2. Any deviation from the principle is blasphemy to its supporters, but the policy must admit exceptions in practice. Even Tim Wu’s seminal paper brings that out.
3. There can be a desire to allow exceptions where the objective is benevolent. Yet, the same exception could, and often does, lead to pernicious outcomes in identical other cases.

An effort to find common ground, and also appreciating the differences, deepens our understanding of the nature of the problem. For instance, BEREC favours the case-by-case, ex post approach to zero rating, whereas TRAI has opted for an ex-ante ban. But in India, the low prices of data and generous usage caps make marginal use of data zero-rated anyway!

The Joint Declaration and the MOU signed at the 35th BEREC Plenary would help regulators in Europe and India work together in developing tools for monitoring the violations and in sharing data. This collaboration is necessary not only for enforcement actions but also for developing policy more suitable for pipes that are no longer dumb.

Net neutrality is to data pipes what an alloying element is to physical pipes: protects the pipes from the build-up of corrosion, thus keeping them clean and robust.

TRAI Chairman RS Sharma

► Read The Post n°21

Agreement on European telecoms rules: what of fibre rollouts?

A political agreement was reached on 6 June between the representatives of European institutions on the review of Europe’s Electronic Communications Code. Promoting access to broadband and superfast broadband networks via fixed and mobile “very high-capacity networks” is one of the stated objectives.

One of the key issues for France regarding fixed superfast network rollouts was to keep the existing framework, while consolidating the (notably symmetric) regulatory tools that have been in place for ten years now, to facilitate fibre deployments.

After lively debates between the proponents of competition and those in favour of a regulatory holiday to bolster investments in the new networks, the Code upholds the regulator’s ability to take action with respect to the SMP operator, while recognising how co-investment agreements can benefit the market, under certain conditions.

Ultimately, on this crucial matter, the new code draws its inspiration from our experience in regulating FttH here in France. So we will no see any dramatic chances to the regulatory framework that is already in place.

In addition to the issue of FttH network rollouts, the new code also seeks to adapt to new digital challenges. It also aims to lay the groundwork for closer collaboration between regulators in Europe within BEREC.

Philippe Distler, Arcep Executive Board Member

► Read The Post n°20

Net neutrality in Canada, and why it matters in the digital age

Net neutrality is an issue that has people across the planet stirred up. The massive increase in data traffic has led inexorably to traffic management issues. But, as consumers turn to digital platforms, it is paramount that they be able to make their own choices, take advantage of innovation and exchange their ideas freely.

In Canada, we have had a clear regulatory framework on the matter since 2009, the year we began regulating internet traffic management practices.

In addition, a new policy has been in place since 2017 that governs differential pricing practices, which is an issue that arises when identical or similar products are being sold to customers at different prices. When internet service providers (ISP) set different prices depending on the content, they are exercising a degree of influence over consumers’ choice of certain content. As a result, the CRTC stipulated that ISPs had to treat all data use equally.

We therefore have a rigorous framework in place and firmly support net neutrality. That being said, we also recognise that any regulatory provisions surrounding net neutrality must be flexible enough to adapt to the changes ushered in by new technologies. The future no doubt holds challenges in this area, particularly with the development of 5G and the Internet of Things.

We believe that net neutrality is essential because we believe that it is, above all, in the best interests of the Canadian public.

Ian Scott, Chair of Canadian regulator, CRTC

► Read The Post n°19

Data have become a central part of all of today’s economic and societal debates. We are only just starting to gauge the possibilities being opened up by the use of these massive quantities of data, which are an increasingly integral part of how businesses and markets operate. But what is also still only nascent is public authorities’ awareness of the ways in which data are being used, with respect to codes of conduct, consumer protection, privacy protection and competition law.

Employing users’ data to optimise online advertising is a good example of how the situation is changing. The ability to deliver targeted ads to an internet user based on their centres of interest, as revealed by their browsing habits, has revolutionised the online advertising sector. At the same time, the internet is becoming the largest advertising medium, and so underscoring the growing influence that digital networks have on our lives. Advertising needs to go after consumers wherever they spend their time, get their news or seek entertainment, and where, more and more, they go to shop for goods and services. At the same time, today’s advertising is a whole new animal: we can now send a highly targeted ad that zeroes in on a single person and the thing she is interested in at that moment. To this end, having access to data and to technologies that provide the ability to tailor advertisements to the website that users are visiting, in real time, has become vital to remaining competitive. Certain players are especially well equipped to go into battle. After having having analysed how the online advertising sector operates, the Competition Authority identified the reasons behind the current success of companies such as Facebook and Google. But, when it comes to exploring this topic with respect to competition issues, or in terms of privacy concerns or safeguarding against political campaign meddling, we are still in the early stages…

Isabelle de Silva, Chair of France’s Competition Authority

► Read The Post n°18

Identification at the heart of communications: we want to know who we’re talking to!

Back in the day, our phone numbers let others know where we were and who we were. Now, with our mobile phones, the notion of location has vanished and given rise to the perpetual question: “Where are you?”. And online apps have done away with phone numbers: the original “06” prefix assigned to mobiles in France has been replaced by the app ID. And the process of calling is more and more feature-rich, with video, end-to-end encryption, and so on. Today, new applications allow users to have several numbers on a single phone, a direct line to a single party, etc.

It nevertheless remains that the “classic” telephone offers the real advantage of interconnecting different systems, whereas apps still require every user to be employing the same application. Which, in turn, gives us a range of identities: Skype, WhatsApp, G-hangout, Facebook…

Why not then examine the means used to communicate these identities, and thereby keep the old systems’ good qualities, before declaring them obsolete?

Serge Abiteboul, Arcep Board member

► Read The Post n°17

And what if we no longer had to walk to the end of the garden to make a call?

The Government reached an historic agreement with operators, thanks to the wide-reaching collaborative work that Arcep performed over the course of several months. One of these measures has gone almost unnoticed: Wi-Fi calling and texting. Even though we are all well aware of the trope — and recurring complaint made against operators – of having head to the bottom of the garden in the pouring rain just to get a signal. While it is true that coverage in rural areas will improve considerably, indoor connectivity will sometimes remain spotty.

This is why this new agreement provides for ubiquitous indoor coverage thanks to the use of Wi-Fi calling. This means that, regardless of your operator, you will be able to make calls on your mobile via your home box starting this year (and starting in late 2019 with Free). But, you might say, if I have a box, why use my mobile to call instead of my landline? Well, because everyone today uses their mobile to make calls: it is the device of choice for making calls and for accessing the web, and the only device used to send text message.

Once your operator has activated the Wi-Fi calling and SMS option (which, depending on the phone you have, is found in “settings” or “preferences”), you can call and text from home, provided your mobile phone is a recent enough model.

Monique Liebert-Champagne, Arcep Board member

► Read The Post n°16

2018: preparing for the future

Arcep’s change in tack, begun in 2015, has translated into actions and results.

Pro-investment regulation has enabled the telecoms sector to get back on track. Arcep will continue firmly on this path in 2018, and will put its guidelines into action in the field. Decisive steps forward will be taken on fibre regulation, the business market and data-driven regulation. The announcement of a new deal for mobile is paving the way for a major paradigm shift, which will need to translate into rapid rollouts.

The positive momentum in the sector means that we now need to prepare for the future. France cannot waste its talent by constantly seeking to make up for lost time.

Arcep wants to be a regulator that unleashes power and energy, and throws open the doors for all the innovators – and I mean ALL the innovators. By supporting Internet of Things start-ups with its regulatory sandbox, and by keeping stakeholders informed about unlicensed frequencies. By galvanising the momentum around 5G, not only operators but every potential user of verticals (industries, infrastructures, public amenities). By guaranteeing the right to permissionless innovation on the internet, by upholding the crucial principle of net neutrality, and, looking beyond, by tackling the issue of devices (smartphones, tablets, voice assistants).

Watch Sébastien Soriano’s hearing with the National Assembly Economic Affairs Committee (in French)

Arcep’s pro-investment regulation, in detail (in French)

Arcep’s 2018 innovation-centric New Year’s message, in the era of Europe and a new deal for mobile

Sébastien Soriano, Chairman of Arcep

► Read The Post n°15

Those opposed to an open, neutral and innovative internet have more than one trick up their sleeve. To flush out unwelcome behaviour, Arcep wanted to analyse the ways in which devices and their operating systems could hamper users’ ability to access and contribute to the various online content and applications: users cannot have access to all of the content available online, and technical or pricing restrictions can limit the deployment or supply of an application. By the same token, barriers to switching can impede the freedom of users wanting to switch from one device to another.

Arcep has taken up the task of mapping out possible courses of action, by consulting with stakeholders, to better understand the mechanisms at work, inform users and encourage the emergence of the conditions required to ensure an open internet.

Françoise Benhamou, Member of the Arcep Executive Board

► Read The Post n°14

Competition and investment in network industries

Everything today is getting connected to the Internet, from e-Health, to connected cars and precision farming. We need to offer high-speed Internet connections and ensure widespread 5G mobile access.

A lot of the necessary investment will result from competition; there is no trade-off between competition and investment. To the contrary, competition is a key driver for investment in telecoms networks. When companies compete fiercely, they invest, and in turn spur their competitors to invest. Take, as an example, alternative operators, which have invested billions in infrastructure in France, Italy or Spain.

We are confident that the European Commission's proposed Electronic Communications Code would help to cut the cost of building new networks. It would encourage telecoms companies to build joint networks in the countryside – with the help of public funds – where it wouldn't be profitable for them to invest on their own. Our state aid rules make it easier for governments to support that investment. We support appropriate mapping of network deployment, as this helps to channel public support to the areas most in need.

At the same time, investment is not an end in itself, as investment as such does not directly benefit consumers. It is the impact of investment on parameters of competition, such as lower prices, better quality of service or greater take-up of telecoms services that translates into consumer benefits.

The recent launch by ARCEP of a platform allowing consumers to signal issues encountered with telecoms operators is a welcome example of how authorities can directly help consumers.

Margrethe Vestager, Commissioner for Competition

► Read The Post n°13

To assist the government in its digital transition, this year Sciences Po and its School of Public Affairs inaugurated a "Public Policy Incubator".

A purely technological approach is not enough when designing the State as a platform for the 21st century: a digital revolution is above all a political, social, ethical, economic, etc. revolution. By bringing together all of these components, this education includes learning about digital culture and its core issues and challenges, areas of disruption, ethical and legal aspects, data, new technologies and information systems. It also means teaching a new culture of innovation, entrepreneurship, design thinking and management, paving the way for a culture of innovation and fostering the ability to tap into the power of the crowd when designing public policies.

It is vital to provide business incubator facilities, where students and researchers can work together on achieving concrete, needs-based solutions that will have a direct impact on the lives of citizens.

The only thing this innovation-centric programme – which is open to all government agencies, local authorities, businesses and members of civil society – needs now are your suggestions and contributions!

Yann Algan, Dean of the Sciences Po School of Public Affairs

► Read The Post n°12

Duality and convergence

Today, access to telecommunications is provided through dual infrastructures: fixed networks on the one hand, and mobile ones on the other. Both are in the throes of profound technological development: optical fibre rollouts for fixed networks, and 5G for mobile.

Arcep does not favour either of the two faces of this telecoms Janus over the other: the investments required in the coming years must deliver both the superfast access enabled by fibre to everyone nationwide, and significantly improve mobile network coverage and availability. It should also be said that the two technologies complete one another, and so achieve a form of convergence. To give one simple example: it is easy to imagine smart devices choosing the best routing path for calls and data in real time: Wi-Fi then fixed or mobile network access.

Jacques Stern, Member of the Arcep Executive Board

► Read The Post n°11

The internet has become an indispensable part of our daily lives and an essential economic infrastructure, but above all a space of freedom, exchange, trade and sharing. Some of us are old enough to remember the tremendous Web revolution initiated by Mosaic 25 years ago, which opened the doors to a new digital Library of Alexandria for each and everyone of us.

If the internet is built on a distributed and decentralised architecture, guarantor of resilience, freedom and innovation, the emergence of heavyweight players along the technical and information chain is creating a potential risk of new strongholds being erected.

In its 2015 regulation on the open internet, the European legislator enshrined this cardinal principle of freedom to access and distribute information and content, to use and provide applications and services without discrimination, via their internet access services, by imposing net neutrality obligations on operators, under the supervision of national regulators.

Arcep and its European counterparts are firmly committed to the task. On 30 May Arcep published its first report on the state of the internet in France, which explores this major issue.

Philippe Distler, Member of the Arcep Executive Board

► Read The Post n°10

Digital anthropology!

Our planet emits weak signals that humans no longer or have never known how to interpret. Billions of sensors dispersed across the globe will fuel the cloud and feed the algorithms that will allow us to anticipate events, and diminish risks by controlling their causes. Here, AI will help reduce disorder and render the second law of thermodynamics obsolete, and so create a less chaotic world!

Looked at this way, we can consider IoT a component of augmented reality, as humans will now have a weak-signal interpreter at their fingertips, right there on their mobile phone!

Ludovic LE MOAN, CEO of Sigfox

► Read The Post n°9

No half measures when it comes to investment

Is there a “magic number” for the operator population in a given market: one that makes it possible to combine low prices and high investment? This has been a longstanding conundrum in Brussels, where former monopolies and the leading banks are lobbying for greater consolidation. With the Commission’s Communications Code seeking to review existing directives, this somewhat fruitless debate is about to be overtaken by otherwise important, substantive work on the type of regulation capable of galvanising investment in the networks of tomorrow, and achieving complete coverage across Europe.

France in the meantime is in the process of finding, if not the perfect equation, at least a practical dynamic. The arrival of a fourth mobile operator has proven very successful for consumers, and a major shake-up for its competitors and the sector as a whole. But recently published figures from Arcep reveal an encouraging trend of stabilisation in the sector. More importantly still, that investments are on an upwards swing. Now that a new Government and Parliament are poised to take over the reins, we must not forget the impact that the latest mergers and acquisitions have had on investment, jobs, etc. So, in France as well, it is time to put talk of consolidation on hold, and focus instead on the major issues and challenges the sector is facing. Mobile coverage, fixed ultrafast access, 5G… therein lies the challenge.

Sébastien Soriano, Chairman of Arcep, Chairman of BEREC

► Read The Post n°8

monreseaumobile.fr is a new map service that has been available on the Arcep website since 22 March, allowing users to gauge mobile network performances with much greater accuracy. Still in the trial stage in the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region, its aim is to remedy the disparities that users have felt between existing coverage maps and the reality in the field.

A prime example of data-driven regulation, this initiative puts information at the heart of regulation and gives everyone the means to compare providers’ performances, and so to make informed choices. Arcep hopes this will trigger a virtuous circle for operators’ investments in their infrastructures.

This “heavy dose of transparency” for the mobile market is especially vital as 85% of the people in France use their mobile phones every day, which today relay two thirds of all voice calls.

Martine Lombard, Arcep Executive Board member

► Read The Post n°7

Welcome to the conversation era

Facebook Messenger has more active daily users than the Facebook app itself. Alexa and other voice-controlled assistants are taking up residence in the homes of millions of families. “Alexa, what’s the weather like outside?”, “Alexa, order milk for tomorrow”, “Alexa, tell us a joke”.

65% of Europeans and Americans no longer download mobile apps. Most of us use only five apps on a regular basis. Social media sites are saturated, as is our telephones’ memory. As screen time is becoming more duty than pleasure, and media and services’ business models are based more and more on their ability to capture and hold users’ attention, an alternative has already emerged: the conversation.

The exponential progress of artificial intelligence, users’ fatigue with the glut of apps and, more generally, the use of smartphones more as efficient tools and less as fun gadgets, have given rise to conversational interfaces, or rather non-interfaces. No more accounts to create or learning curves to climb: complexity has been handed over to the technology itself, machines interact with one another and try to understand users’ intention in order to serve them better.
 
These little robots, nestled into our favourite messaging app, are improving day by day and their use becoming more streamlined. At once a consumer service already embraced by millennials, and a business service adopted in the workplace, chatbots are garnering attention thanks to their discrete interface, their invisible design, their desire to deliver the right service, to the right person, at the right time, and then be forgotten.
 
Good news for your valuable attention, welcome to the conversation era.

Marjolaine Grondin, CEO, Jam

► Read The Post n°6

From the telephone modernisation plan of the 1970s to today’s superfast broadband plan, our country has proven its ability to mobilise around vast infrastructure projects. But, working as closely with those in the field as possible, regulation also needs to be agile to support the development of networks, SMEs’ digitisation, high quality and innovative services. In other words, it must be open to experimentation, to operators’ initiatives to satisfy the demand for efficiency being continually reiterated by citizens and businesses alike, for which “it is indispensable, vital… it has to work!

Pierre-Jean Benghozi, Arcep Executive Board member

► Read The Post n°5

"User experience rules"

For once, here's an expression that doesn't come from the French.

When Mark Zuckerberg or Larry Page says that user experience rules, primes above all, they are expressing one of the most fundamental truths of this early part of the 21st century: the user experience is capable of creating new kinds of reality. When the experience of a chauffer-driven car is so much better than a taxi ride, we can always ban the chauffeur service but it will not be without repercussions. When an open source encyclopaedia like Wikipedia is much more accessible and wide-ranging that the good old Britannica, which was nonetheless compiled by the finest scientists on the planet, it creates new standards. Despite which States all too rarely take an experience-based approach, which some refer to as global design, remaining rooted instead in the realm of the theoretical. But the theoretical view will invariably much less closely match reality than actual, lived experience.

Of course, we could raise the objection that "user experience rules" approaches generally take only the interests of the few into consideration, and often those of highly capitalistic corporations. So this is the very area where work still needs to be done: having experience-based approaches that take all stakeholders into account, and which ultimately serve the common good. This is the spirit behind an initiative currently being mounted by the École des Affaires Publiques in Paris, in partnership with the Institut Montaigne and Epita. Allowing teams, immersed in high stakes social issues, to rethink the user experience with the help of digital technology, to enable more efficient government action, and possibly propose new normative approaches.

Gilles Babinet, Digital Champion - European Commission, entrepreneur

► Read The Post n°4

Many reasons are being put forth to explain the current rise of populism. Often cited is the fear of digital, the destruction of a model that is leaving people by the wayside: a not terribly creative destruction that goes against Schumpeterian predictions. On the flipside, we could postulate that by providing everyone, individuals and businesses alike, with a connection and an optimal quality of service, we diminish the feeling of being excluded. This would mean increased investments, especially in rural areas and for our most disadvantaged.

Françoise Benhamou, Arcep Executive Board member

► Read The Post n°3

The Digital Republic Act at a glance

The Digital Republic Act (loi pour une République Numérique), which was adopted a few days ago, seeks to stimulate digital growth but also to provide a framework to ensure it complies with fundamental principles, such as the right to privacy and copyright laws. It works to ensure that everybody in France has access to new technologies, with special measures for people with disabilities and those in a precarious situation. Several of its provisions strengthen the role played by supervisory bodies, such as CNIL and CADA. Arcep's own mandate has been reinforced and its powers strengthened by the Act. Deputy Luc Belot, Rapporteur for the Digital Republic Act

Deputy Luc Belot, Rapporteur for the Digital Republic Act

► Read The Post n°2

Welcome to THE POST, our new monthly rendez-vous. In it, you will find talk of regulation (a lot) and digital affairs (everywhere). Architect and guardian of internet, fixed and mobile telecoms and postal networks in France, through its actions Arcep continues to be a passionate contributor to the wider movement of the digital revolution.

Sébastien Soriano, Arcep Chairman

► Read The Post n°1