Launched in 2013, the France Very High Speed Plan has now achieved its objectives: to provide all French people with very high speed connectivity, with a technological mix ranging from fiber to satellite, while respecting the envelope of 13.3 billion in public investment notified to the European Commission in 2016. Notable effects of the arrival of fiber on the attractiveness of territories, employment and business performance are already observable. The success of the Plan is largely due to an original governance ensured in a shared manner between local authorities, State services and private operators.
Assessing the fight against the digital divide
77.6% of the French population was in the white fixed broadband zone in 2015, which placed France in 26th place in Europe; in 2022, it rises to 12th place for THD and for fiber in the front runners in Europe.
In 2013, the State launched the France Very High Speed Plan (PFTHD). The aim is to provide all French people with very high-speed connectivity, i.e. greater than 30 Mbit/s in 2022. To do this, private investment must be encouraged to ensure coverage of the the whole territory while planning to finance from public funds the less dense areas where market deficiencies would have been anticipated.
Coverage objectives are achieved
By 2022, the PFTHD has achieved its objectives by achieving very high-speed coverage for 99% of premises in the territory, with a technological mix ranging from wired solutions (fiber, ADSL, coaxial cable) to satellite coverage, including by radio technology.
By gradually favoring fiber to the subscriber (FttH technology for fiber to the home) when technical conditions and economic viability allow it, the Plan has contributed to a marked acceleration in the deployment of this technology: at the end of 2021, more than 70% of premises were thus eligible for FttH.
Consumers are quickly adopting fibre: at the end of 2021, France had 33 million internet subscriptions, including 18.4 million at very high speed (i.e. 60%). Among THD subscriptions, 14.5 million are fiber subscriptions.
With regard to companies, 32% had a very high speed subscription at the end of 2020 and according to the sector, they would be 55% in 2022 to be connected to fiber.
Inequalities in deployment that qualify this assessment
Difficulties of operationalization and inequalities of deployment remain according to the “zones” of intervention. In areas of private intervention, 88% of premises are eligible for FttH but the latest deployments are slow to be made, particularly in the outskirts of certain large cities.
The public initiative zones got off to a later start. As a result, only 60% of premises have access to THD (in the fourth quarter of 2021) via wired technologies, and 51% of premises can be connected to FttH. A proportion however higher than the European average (a little more than 30% for fiber for rural areas) and above all in strong growth. At the current rate of deployments in public initiative networks (more than 5 million sockets per year), the generalization of fiber should be reached in 2025.
Economic and social impacts of fiber on the territories
The arrival of fiber in a municipality is accompanied by the development of the commercial sector in the territory and the arrival of a younger population. However, if the effects of fiber exist, a minimum period of 3 years is necessary. after deployment to be statistically identifiable. It therefore lacks sufficient hindsight to fully measure these effects today. The deployment of fiber has significant comparative advantages in terms of environmental footprint. Starting with its low energy consumption: fiber networks consume an average of 10 kWh per subscription compared to 35 kWh for copper networks.
A first success of the PFTHD
The implementation of the projects did not give rise to any budget drift. The forms of contractualisation between local authorities and private operators within the RIPs have also been able to adapt to the benefit of greater project efficiency. More generally, the original governance of the Plan, ensured in a shared manner between local authorities and State services, and linked to different forms of private partnerships, has made possible a great flexibility of the system. One of the keys to its success.