French fibre ultimatum

Le Figaro reports that the French President has given the country’s four main telecoms operators just two weeks to come up with a joint proposal for connecting the country’s so-called “grey areas” with fibre.

In larger towns and cities, four operators — Orange, SFR, Free and Numericable — are deploying fiber-optic networks which has brought 4.5 million households within reach of a superfast connection. This might sound like a lot, but this represents less than 20% of homes in France.

At the opposite end of the scale are very isolated rural areas, where could be eligible for state aid, especially now that European guidelines have been clarified. In fact, earlier this month, French prime minister Francois Fillon proposed that the state-owned financial institution Caisse des Depots would invest €750 million (£685 million) over three years to support fibre rollout in areas of low population density (link in french).

“Grey areas” are the regions in between, which aren’t likely to attract investment from telecoms operators, but would fall outside the scope of state aid. To break the impasse, French policy makers are pushing the idea that the main operators should cooperate to build a single, shared network to cover these areas.

A joint venture between the four operators would prevent costly duplication of physical infrastructure, and thus reduce the financial burden on each operator individually. The estimated cost would be around €20 billion.

But can the country’s telecoms companies be persuaded to work together? France Telecom is opposed to the scheme, while alternative operator Free is in favour, according to Le Figaro. Watch this space!