In the years 1980-1990, the cable plan, which aimed to install 10 million sockets in France, had turned into a fiasco. More than 30 billion francs at the time (about 4.5 billion euros) had been swallowed up in a network that was ultimately little used and quickly rendered obsolete by the arrival of new technologies, in particular ADSL. Launched in 2013 and about to end, the very high speed France plan (PFTHD), which promised to bring an ultra-fast Internet connection to all French people from 2022, metropolitan and overseas, will not suffer the same wrath.
“It’s an overall success”, says Pierre-Jean Benghozi, director of research at the National Center for Scientific Research and professor at the Ecole polytechnique, who chaired the evaluation committee of this plan entrusted to France Strategy, the prospective institution attached to the Prime Minister . Its report was submitted on Wednesday, January 11, to Jean-Noël Barrot, Minister Delegate in charge of the digital transition and telecommunications.
Mr. Benghozi sees two main reasons for satisfaction. First, the achievement of coverage objectives. “In the mid-2010s, France was lagging far behind its neighbors” in terms of very high-speed Internet connections, recalls the chairman of the evaluation committee. She appeared at 26e European rank. “The plan made it possible to bring France back to the 12e square. It is even number one for fiber optics alone”he appreciates, even if geographical disparities remain.
Impulse for investments
By the end of 2021, 99% of homes and businesses in the territory could be connected to a very high speed network, wired or mobile. Added along the way, the objective of generalizing fiber optics in 2025 also seems within reach. According to the latest figures from Arcep, the telecoms policeman, as of September 30, 2022, 33.1 million premises were eligible for an optical fiber offer, i.e. 77% of the territory.
Second satisfaction: the management of public money. “There was no cost drift”, underlines Mr. Benghozi. Intended to launch the project in the least populated areas, and therefore the least profitable for telecom operators, the initial envelope of 13.3 billion euros in public financing “was held”. The State put 3.5 billion euros, the communities 8.8 billion, the balance having been provided by the European Union.
Above all, this device helps “has shown its effectiveness” by giving impetus to investments by private operators. In so-called public initiative zones, telecom operators have invested 9.52 billion euros, or 42% of the cost of the project. Adding the 13 billion euros of investments by operators in very dense areas, the PFTHD mobilized a total of almost 36 billion euros.
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