Article – French language
Fibre optique : le gouvernement lance une mission pour débrancher l’ADSL- m.01net.com
My Comments
France – another area to go full-fibre
It is not just Australia where there is a drive to head towards fibre-to-the-premises broadband. The same situation is also happening in France where a government committee is working on supplanting the country’s copper telephone network with a fibre-based next-generation broadband network.
They have an interim goal for a report by end of 2013 with a final roadmap by end of 2014, which will detail how and when to go about this project and who is being affected. An issue that was being raised was implementing VDSL2 which theoretically yields 50Mbps over a short copper link for areas where fibre isn’t practical or affordable. This technology was just lately accepted as a communications technology by ARCEP who are the governing body for France’s telecommunications.
There was also the Intent to indemnify France-Télécom because, as a classic telecommunications operator and being a spinoff of the Postes Téléphones Télégraphs government body, they own the copper network. This is similar to what has happened with Telstra in Australia when it came to the NBN.
I also see issues that are likely to be raised about the difficult parts of France Métropolitaine (L’Héxagone) and the Outre-Mer territories where fibre-optic installation may be considered difficult or costly. Could this also invoke implementation of technologies like fixed wireless?
Similarly, the competitive nature of France’s telecommunications and Internet-access sector could place requirements on this goal such as whether to cover more or less territory quickly. It can also encompass protection of competitive access to the new infrastructure such as the “multifibre” method or the “single-fibre” method.
It would be interesting to see who else would be daring to head down the full fibre-to-the-premises route while dumping copper for their telecommunications and Internet infrastructure.
