“One more step towards very high speed for all” (Jean-Noël Barrot, Minister Delegate in charge of the Digital Transition)

2023-12-17 04:36:00

Eight out of ten French people today have access to fiber to connect to the Internet. What do you plan for the others?

Jean-Noël Barrot: French people who do not yet have access to fiber can turn to other technologies, such as satellite or 4G for fixed use when it is available. Since 2019, the State has subsidized, in rural areas, the acquisition of the necessary equipment (the satellite dish, for example), the installation and activation of the service. This aid goes up to 300 euros, or even 600 euros for the most modest households. It takes the form of an immediate discount on the purchase of equipment at the time of subscription. Some 142,000 households have already benefited. I have decided to extend it to the entire national territory, and to the 7 million households who are not yet eligible for fiber. This is a strong measure in the service of regional planning. It will be effective at the beginning of next year. This is one more step towards the right to very high speed for all. In total, 20 million euros are dedicated to extending this installation aid.

The government welcomes the industrial “success” of the deployment of fiber in France

Operators have slowed down the deployment of fiber in recent months. Does this threaten the objective of generalization by 2025, as Emmanuel Macron promised?

With nearly 10,000 sockets per day deployed by operators in the third quarter of 2023, the pace remains strong. Deployments have accelerated in rural areas. It was in urban areas that they tended to slow down. The recent agreement that I signed with the historic operator Orange will allow us to reaccelerate, with the objective, indeed, of the generalization of fiber in 2025. Anyone who wishes will then be able to benefit from this technology. This is the commitment of the President of the Republic. I am confident we will achieve this. I would like to remind you that, thanks to the deployment of fiber and other technologies, very high-speed Internet [lorsque le débit est supérieur à 30 mégabits par seconde] is now accessible to 100% of French people. The objective set ten years ago was therefore achieved, without slippage in budget or timetable. More than four out of five French people can now subscribe to fiber, and we have passed the milestone of 20 million subscribers this year. It is a triple success: for the French, who can access new services; for the territories, because where fiber arrives, unemployment falls; and for the telecoms sector, because this industrial project is the biggest at the start of the century.

Many French people complain about the quality of fiber networks, wild disconnections or poor workmanship during installation. What do you plan to do to remedy this?

If the speed of deployments is important, the quality of the connection is just as important. The French have the right to it, and I am particularly vigilant about it. With Arcep [le régulateur des télécoms], for which it is the responsibility, we regularly bring together the operators to take stock of this subject. I will also receive them on Wednesday in Bercy. If we do not move quickly enough, we will enshrine this quality imperative in law.

Telecom networks are fragile. Up to 1.5 million French people were deprived of the Internet after the passage last month of storms Ciaran and Domingos. What do you plan to do to further secure these infrastructures?

These very striking examples of the dramatic consequences of climate change effectively force us to rethink the resilience and robustness of our networks. On the other hand, the response cannot be decreed from Paris. Each territory has its own problems and solutions. They are not the same in Finistère and Gironde, where I went this Thursday to discuss, precisely, with elected officials on this subject. We will continue our analysis work in light, in particular, of the storms which hit the western coast of the country this fall.