In France, the main operators active in the FTTx market are France Telecom (FT), Free, Numericable and SFR, with the major operators bringing the fibre network to the streets of forty cities or urban areas during the past two years.
The "battle of optical fibre" began when, in September 2006, the alternative fixed network operator, Free, launched a "triple play" offer for 30 euros, which included downstream speed of 100 Mbps, free phone calls to forty-two countries and high-definition television. The spread of this offer began in Paris and expanded to other urban areas in particular, Montpellier, Lyon and, more recently, Valenciennes and the outskirts of Paris. This operator envisaged, in 2007, an investment in a point-to-point fibre network of one billion euros over five years, to cover four million subscribers.
It is noted that, in October 2006, Free acquired CitéFiber which in the middle of this year launched a residential optical fibre service in the 15th district of Paris. 1
As early as 06.12.2009, Free announced its FTTH retail offers in the city centre of Valenciennes in northern France 2 - with downstream speed of 100 Mbps and upstream speed of 50 Mbps, and is expected to cover the entire city, about 13 thousand buildings (residences and businesses), in 2010.
SFR set out, in 2007, that it would invest 300 million euros (in 2007 and 2008) in PON architecture networks, in order to achieve a coverage of one million homes. In January 2007, this operator acquired Mediafibre (selling fibre access in the region of Pau), and in April the same year, it also acquired Eren, an operator which had launched an FTTB offer in 2003.
Free, like SFR, is currently focusing the development of its networks basically in areas where there are alternatives to the civil engineering infrastructure of FT, such as the public ducts of Paris.
Also in 2007, another alternative operator, Numericable set out that it would invest 280 million euros in pre-development of FTTH, to cover 1.5 million homes in 2007 and five million in 2008. This operator has started replacing some of its coaxial cable network with optical fibre, in the horizontal part of the network and in about thirty cities or urban areas.
It is noted that in late 2009 Numericable established a partnership with mobile network operator Bouygues Telecom with a view to making a joint investment in optical fibre.
FT's projects to be undertaken from 2007 to 2010 envisage passing one million homes and include a pre-development of FTTH (with PON architecture) estimated at 280 million euros, during 2007 and 2008, and including ten large cities 3 as potentially eligible areas.
On 01.03.2007, FT launched the first commercial FTTH offer in Paris, at 45 euros for an Internet connection of 100 Mbps (flat rate) and a set of services including VoIP and television, with free installation. This offer was preceded by a trial FTTH programme, begun in June 2006 by FT / Orange SA on the outskirts of Paris, which included speeds of 2.5 Gbps downstream and 1.2 Gbps upstream and which had thirty users using a PON network with a price of 70 euros per month.
France has been experiencing high growth in the number of ultrafast broadband subscriptions, with about 100 thousand FTTH/FTTB customers and 320 thousand HFC customers in the third quarter of 2010 (which means growth of 70% and 66%, respectively, compared to the same period of 2009). 4
A forecast made by ARCEP in 2007, referring to 2013, envisaged 3 million FTTX passed homes in the Paris region, 430 thousand in the region of Marseille, 400 thousand in the region of Lyon, 220 thousand in the region of Lille/Valenciennes, 190 thousand in the region of Bordeaux, 160 thousand in the region of Toulouse, 140 thousand in the Strasbourg region and 90 thousand in the region of Nantes.
Meanwhile, Figure 43 shows the evolution in the total number of buildings equipped with FTTH as well as homes eligible to receive optical fibre.
Figure 43 - Evolution in the total number of buildings equipped with FTTH and homes eligible to receive FTTH between 31.12.2008 and 31.12.2009
According to data from IDATE, in December 2009, France had a total of 570 thousand homes passed with fibre by the incumbent, 5.2 million passed by alternative operators (370 thousand by Free, 380 thousand by SFR and 4.4 million by Numericable).
Figure 44 - Number of passed homes in France (December 2009)
ARCEP estimates that by the end of June 2009, about 4.5 million homes and businesses were located near an optical fibre network and are eligible to sign up the services thereof, and that a total of 33 thousand buildings were equipped with optical fibre and connected to the network of at least one operator, while there are 650 thousand households located in these buildings which are eligible for FTTH offers 5 (France has a total of 26.28 million primary residences) 6.
On 30.06.2009, again according to ARCEP, there were two hundred cases of "ultrafast" subscriptions to broadband supported by network sharing agreements between service providers. Meanwhile, about 5 thousand households located in one hundred buildings equipped with optical fibre, were connected to the network of at least two operators.
It is noted that ARCEP has been taking steps to examine the conditions of NGN evolution and to take relevant measures to streamline its deployment, namely: 7
a) Public consultation of 27.07.2007 8, on the shared use of local optical fibre networks, with the objective of ensuring effective sharing of the terminating segment of the fibre network;
b) Public consultation of 27.07.2007 9, on the competitive situation concerning access to electronic communications ducts and the possible regulation of this access, with the aim of determining the possibility of using existing infrastructure to accommodate cables and thereby considerably reducing operators' costs in the development of a fibre network;
c) Public consultation 22.05.2008 10, on shared use by operators of the terminating segment of optical fibre local loop networks, with the objective of defining the obligations of the "property operator", (the operator responsible for the installation and exploration of the network in the building) with respect to users and other co-operators, as well as their relationship with the property owners or managers;
d) Recommendation of 10.10.2008 11, on shared use by operators of the terminating segment of optical fibre local loop networks; where guidelines are given on aspects of the concluded consultations, especially in the following regard; the role of the "property operator" as the sole interlocutor with users, location of shared access points, forms of sharing the final part of the connection and provision of information to third party operators;
e) Public consultation of 22.06.2009 12, on the draft decision of ARCEP on the modalities of access to very high-speed, optical fibre, electronic communications lines.
In parallel, ARCEP published reports on the development of the NGA, including:
a) Analysis of Relevant Markets 13 (broadband) of April 2008. These basically contain an examination of the changes to the market of wholesale physical infrastructure access (market 4) and wholesale market of enabled offers (market 5) in the public consultations undertaken by ARCEP in December 2007 and February 2008;
b) Summary of the first phase of the evaluation of experimental works regarding "The sharing of optical fibre networks" 14, of April 2009. This report contains an evaluation of an experimental pilot project (started in mid-October 2008), supervised by ARCEP and carried out by operators, in order to assess what the important factors will be in the effective deployment of NGA;
c) Optical Fibre 15 ("Rapport relatif au déploiement des réseaux en fibre optique suite à la première phase de travaux d'expérimentation et d'évaluation menés sous l'égide de l'ARCEP"), of April 2009. Analyzes the state of evolution of the experimental project mentioned above and debates the current state of optical fibre in France, including the state of development of optical fibre networks in "high density areas";
d) Very High Speed Reference Framework of 31.12.2008, April 2009 16, containing a compilation of data concerning the situation of very high-speed Internet in France.
In June 2009, two conventions were also published to define and formalize the development of optical fibre networks:
a) "Modèle de convention pour l'utilisation des installations de génie civil pour les réseaux de communications électroniques" 17, with the objective of defining the general, technical and financial conditions by which communities (groups of citizens or entities) agree the right of the operator to use the premises of the community in order that it is possible for operators to develop FTTX;
b) "Convention type d'installation, gestion, entretien et remplacement de lignes de communications electroniques a três haut debite en fibre optique" 18, aimed at formalizing access to buildings and dwellings for the installation of fibre, preserving the rights of owners and the exercise of competition, pursuant to decree-law no. 2009-54 of 20.09 19 regarding the installation, management, maintenance and renovation of very high-speed, optical fibre, electronic communications lines in a building.
The way in which the French regulator has developed a national strategy for NGN also included the launch and supervision of a pilot project, begun in mid-October 2008, which will result in the following reading of the FTTH market:
a) The operators involved in the development of optical fibre were in clearly different positions, especially on the one hand the incumbent operator who used its ducts (inherited from the time of monopoly) and on the other Numericable that has been gradually replacing its coaxial network with fibre;
b) The OOA’s FTTx coverage was dependent on access to existing ducts, considered essential infrastructure, and therefore requiring regulation so that these operators are able to invest, minimizing regulation of higher levels of the network and limiting the duplication of civil construction works by local authorities;
c) Access to buildings was a major problem for all operators, while it was clear that users do not want to be limited in their choice to the operator which is first to install its network on the property);
d) The sharing of infrastructure between operators is essential to avoid duplication of fibre networks.
In this pilot project, 2 thousand homes were selected, spread out over twenty locations in Paris (where several operators have already developed horizontal networks, mono-fibre or multi-fibre) and a detailed study was conducted of the interaction between the various actors present. Five operators participated in this project (FT, SFR, Free, Numericable and Covage). 20
Additionally, important measures were taken on access to ducts. In 2007, ARCEP audited the ducts of FT in ten cities and a sample of a thousand distribution cabinets to evaluate the availability of space. This measure was based on the fact that access to existing ducts could reduce the cost of civil construction works incurred by the alternative operator by five to ten times, which costs represent 50% to 80% of the development costs of a new optical fibre loop.
In 2010, ARCEP launched a public consultation, running until November, on the pricing methodology with respect to access to ducts. The NRA deemed that duct access fees should be based on volume, i.e., based on the calculation per metre (length) and per square centimetre of the FT duct used. According to ARCEP, this is the best approach to support the efficient use of ducts by operators deploying competing networks. The rates are differentiated between the ducts of the termination segment of the access network and the feeder segment (area between the OLT and the distribution point), since demand will vary according to the technological options of operators (e.g. between point-to-point and point-multipoint FTTH).
As seen in Figure 46, if the OOA had no access to the incumbent operator's duct network, only 13% of homes would be connected by the OOA with FTTH, compared to 79% in cases where they can access existing ducts.
Figure 45 - Homes connected by alternative operators with FTTH where they have access vs. no access to the duct network of FT
In this context, on 15.09.2008, FT announced its reference duct access offer, replacing its previous offer from late 2007, thereby fulfilling the obligations contained in the decision adopted by ARCEP's market analysis on 24.07.2008, requiring FT to allow access to its duct infrastructure, under transparent and non-discriminatory conditions and with cost-oriented prices.
This set of regulatory developments culminated in July 2009 with a draft decision of ARCEP on "Très haute débit" 21, through disclosing the development strategy of NGN in France. This draft received the favourable opinion of the French Competition Authority on 22.09.2009. 22 Subsequently notification was made to the EC, which on 05.11.2009 issued its favourable opinion recommending that in addition to the measures proposed by ARCEP, consideration be given to the unbundling of access to the fibre loop. 23
On 22.12.2009, ARCEP (Decision No. 2009-1106) 24 submitted a final document on the development of "ultra-fast" broadband. Essentially it coincides with the content of the draft decision of July 2009, whereas the following points should be noted:
a) The definition of high density areas 25 where more than one network, of PON or point-to-point architecture, can be developed (about 5.5 thousand households, where deployment costs are the lowest), whereby alternative operators are completely independent of the incumbent operator. In these areas, the owner or manager of the property is responsible for choosing the provider which officially, by signing a contract, will be responsible for installing and maintaining the vertical fibre network in the building. This "operator of the building" has the obligation to inform its competitors, so that they have the opportunity to share the development costs of this network from the start, putting in their own networks. The shared access point is placed outside the building - thereby preventing the creation of local monopolies; 26
b) Prior consultation - It is recommended that a prior consultation is implemented at municipal level, to identify any operators interested in co-financing the deployment of optical fibre in buildings, in order to define, ab initio, the method of installing the lines and the model of each operator's access to the building's fibre (shared or dedicated fibre line); 27
c) Building cabling - Regarding the installation of fibre inside buildings in high density areas, “the operator of the building", in the month after it is named as such, has an obligation to inform other operators about its intention to install cabling in the building with optical fibre lines, whereas the form in which this information is provided is regulated 28 so that the remaining operators may properly scale their network taking these elements into account and, if they see fit, install a dedicated fibre line inside the building;
d) ARCEP recommended that this process of disclosure and compilation of expressions of interest from other interested operators should last not more than three months. If no operator manifests an intention to install a dedicated line, "the operator of the building" may install a single line per property, and must provide interested operators with access to this line at the pooling point; 29
e) It was, however, recommended that to ensure a satisfactory after-sales service, "the operator of the building" should install at least two lines, one for any third-party operators. If there are manifestations of interest by n operators, it will be obliged to place n lines per interested operator. However, for operational reasons, the installation of more than four optical fibre lines per household was not recommended, nor was the sharing of the same line by more than four operators;
f) Access to building fibre lines by third party operators which did not manifest interest from the beginning - In this case, the "operator of the building" has the obligation to provide access to these operators through the pooling point, using shared fibre or a dedicated line.
Therefore, by establishing the definition of density areas, ARCEP created geographically differentiated regulation. At the same time, it clarified important aspects regarding the role of operators in properties, the publication of reference access offers and exchange of information between operators and the principles governing access prices (initial investment and/or risk premium for future access).
ARCEP considers that the incremental costs, due to the development of multi-fibre networks in dense areas, will be about 5% 30 (between 3 to 4 million euros).
ARCEP's vision, whereby the coordination of the operators in order to avoid duplication of fibre network infrastructure within buildings (being economically unreasonable) is in line with the view of the French legislature.
In fact, the Law of the Modernization of the Economy (Law no. 2008-776 of 4.08.2008) 31, sets out that new buildings should be equipped with fibre and that the first operator to install fibre within a building is bound to provide non-discriminatory access to other operators.
In this context, and as a consequence of the cited determination of ARCEP of December 2009, in the first quarter of 2010, FT, SFR, Numericable and Covage published their reference offers for the construction and pooling of vertical cabling in properties. 32
Regarding areas that are not considered as being of very high density, in June 2010, the French regulator launched a public consultation, whose key elements included upholding sharing between the operators of the FTTH access network, connection to access points according to reasonable costs and timeframes and non-discriminatory conditions, location of access points in FT’s "feeder" network (promoting the installation of cables of various operators in ducts) and scaling the capacity of access points between 300 and one thousand lines.
At the same time, ARCEP is performing oversight of three working groups (which include participation by operators and in some cases, local and regional authorities) on the deployment of fibre, related to operational aspects, with issues concerning the sharing of infrastructure in less densely populated areas and with matters related to specifications and with the efficiency of the equipment at shared access points.
One feature of NGN development in France, was the intervention of local authorities in the development of fibre networks, undertaken pursuant to article L 1425-1 of the General Law over Regional Administrative Structures (Code Général des Collectivités Territoriales - CGCT), which establishes the conditions for action by local authorities in the electronic communications sector. These may provide infrastructure and networks and operate them based on the principles of equality and free competition, but cannot intervene in respect of end-users, except in cases where there is no serious interest from private operators. 33
The intervention of local authorities forms part of the national strategy for the development of Internet broadband networks in France, especially in rural areas, executed through the public service outsourcing mechanisms 34, PPP and SEM 35 (see Figure 46).
The DSP and PPP have contracts of 15 to 20 years, and represent a concession to sell wholesale services and/or fibre to local, regional, national and international operators. Specific agreements may also permit the construction or sale of dark fibre. There are about 100 municipalities and about 30,000 communities in France linked to these projects.
ARCEP recognized the value of the role performed by local authorities in the development of NGA in France, and in 2004 created the Committee of Public Initiative Networks (Comité des Réseaux d'Initiative Publique - CRIP) to drive dialogue and information exchange between local authorities, operators, and public agencies interested in electronic communications.
Figure 46 - Broadband infrastructure of local authorities in France
Furthermore, the NRA published a document on 07.04.2009 36 on the framework of local authorities in the context of optical fibre. As an example, reference is made to the Single-Purpose Intercommunal Syndicate for Cable Television (Syndicat Intercommunal à Vocation Unique pour la Télédistribution - SIVU) which expects that, by 2012, four towns (Cappelle-la-Grande, Coudekerque-Branche, Fort-Mardyck and Saint-Pol-sur-Mer) will be equipped with optical fibre, through the development of a project with an associated investment to order of 22 million euros, whereas it is expected that fibre will reach the homes of around 60 thousand inhabitants (approximately 28.3% of the population of the urban communities covered).
In reaction to the NGN strategy proposed by ARCEP, various representatives of rural area authorities raised concerns about the development of fibre in sparsely populated areas, which were left out of the strategy proposed by the regulator.
Accordingly, a senator and mayor submitted a draft law (La lutte contre la fracture numérique) to facilitate the planning, organization and financing of fibre infrastructure in sparsely populated areas, which came to be adopted on 05.12.2009. 37
In terms of regional developments, note is made of the THD92 operation project, launched in 2004. This is a very high speed optical fibre network (which should provide end-users with speeds between 100 Mbps and 1 Gbps). It is located in Hauts-de-Seine (Where the population has the highest average level of per capita income of any Department in France) and managed by the company Sequalum (owned by Numéricable (80%), Eiffrage (15%) and by LD Collectivités (5%)), which won the public service concession for a period of twenty-five years. It is noted that Sequalum will make use of some existing infrastructure of FT and Colt, and will not directly provide retail services directly.
An investment of 422 million euros is planned over the next six years. This project will cover the entire Department, including non-profitable areas. This translates into the target of passing at least 828 thousand homes (including 423 thousand homes in the first three years of implementation and 405 thousand homes over the following three years) and connecting 573 thousand homes.
Following concerns expressed by operators of competing networks (e.g. FT and Colt), related to alleged overlap with existing networks, distortion of competition and misuse of public funds due to the financing of THD92, a complaint was lodged with the EC.
However, the EC gave approval to public co-financing of 59 million euros for the THD92 project - seen as a way to connect homes that are considered difficult to reach, even though most of the area of Hauts-de-Seine has good broadband infrastructure 38 - considering that the allocation criteria are in accordance with the case law of the European Court of Justice.
Figure 47 gives an overview of the investment in broadband in France, summarizing the results obtained from the involvement of various agents in the market, and as a result, for the first time in 2009, France was reported among the countries with FTTTH/B+LAN penetration exceeding 1%.
Figure 47 - Broadband investment in France (June 2009)
An investment was announced by the French government in January 2010 of around 4.5 billion euros, which will be administered through a new fund for the digital economy. Of this investment about 2 billion euros is to improve high-speed networks and 2.5 billion euros to support the development of innovative content and services to the customer. 39
The 2 billion euros to improve high-speed networks in the country is included in a national programme to boost the economy through infrastructure investment. The plan is to provide operators with funds (at low rates of interest) to expand their high-speed Internet access networks in order to encourage the development of optical fibre networks outside the major cities and reduce the current inequality in access to Internet services.
Under the proposed system, the electronic communications groups of FT, SFR and Vivendi will be encouraged to invest together to build optical fibre networks, thereby ensuring that no operator has a network monopoly in a given area. These operators have conducted tests in three towns on the outskirts of Paris as to how to share access to optical fibre networks.
However, on 10.12.2010, Bouygues and SFR announced a co-investment agreement for the deployment of optical fibre networks in municipalities located in very densely populated areas in France. 40
SFR is going to modernize the 2G network in rural areas in order to support HSPA+, with the aim of sharing the network with Orange and Bouygues Telecom after its modernization. This will be the first HSPA network to be deployed in the 900MHz GSM spectrum. France was among the first countries to permit this reorganization of the 900MHz GSM spectrum, with a view to universal broadband coverage. Compared with the usual 3G frequency bands, the GSM 900MHz band supports a longer range and greater signal penetration inside buildings, requiring a smaller number of cells (base stations); this enables coverage of rural areas at a significantly lower cost than is the case of frequencies currently used for 3G.
In parallel, on 03.12.2010, ARCEP announced the preparation of a tender for the allocation of frequency bands of 800 MHz and 2.6 GHz for use in very high-speed "4G" mobile networks; It is expected that this process will have been completed within the first half of 2011. 41
To cover the more remote areas of France, a satellite will be developed over the next four years to enable high-speed Internet access.
In addition to issues of NGN development, the government has also called for the emergence of a low cost Internet connection, at around 20 euros per month for less well off households, compared with current prices at around 30 euros.
In this context, on 26.01.2010, the French government launched a public consultation on the "ultra-fast" national broadband programme (Consultation Publique sur le Programme National "Tres Haut Debit") 42, seeking to compile the opinions of various stakeholders on the implementation of "ultra-fast" broadband in France.
Currently, the French government's goal is to ensure NGA coverage of 70% of the population in 2020 and of the entire population in 2025.
On 25.02.2010 in its presentation of results, FT announced that it would reduce its investment in DSL in dense areas, as well as the deployment of FTTH, until it received regulatory clarifications on NGN.
On 26.02.2010, Orange announced that in the coming weeks it would launch a "quad-play" service, including broadband Internet, voice, television and mobile services, with a starting price of 45 euros per month.
As noted, NGN development in France, has some similarities with the Portuguese model, especially in terms of the regulator's focus on enabling access to ducts and to the fibre pooling point by OOA, on developing regionally-based NGN programs with the involvement of local communities and the government's commitment to fostering NGN development.
1 The broadband available for each user was 100 Mbits, with 30 Mbits reserved for Internet traffic. The most complete package included digital television and VoIP. The price of the simplest package, that included Internet with unlimited traffic, was 49 euros.
2 Valenciennes, pionnière du Très Haut Débit - Free inaugure son réseau de fibre optique jusqu’à l’abonné (FTTH)http://www.iliad.fr/presse/2009/CP_041209.pdf.
3 http://www.acist.pt/files/2008-march-PresentationFTTH.pdf.
4 Quarterly observatory of the telecommunications market (high-speed and ultra high-speed subscriptions) in France - retail market - 3rd quarter 2010 - Publication at 1st December 2010http://www.arcep.fr/?id=10656&L=1.
5 Report on very high speed at 31 December 2008http://www.arcep.fr/fileadmin/reprise/observatoire/tres-haut-debit/2009/tab-fibre-thd-070409-eng.pdf.
6 According to 2006 data from Institut National de la Statistique et des Études Économiques See http://www.insee.fr/fr/themes/tableau.asp?reg_id=0&ref_id=NATTEF05235.
7 La fibre en Francehttp://www.arcep.fr/index.php?id=8650.
8 Mutualisation de la partie terminale des réseaux de boucle locale fibre optique e La situation concurrentielle des fourreaux de communications électroniques et leur régulation éventuellehttp://www.arcep.fr/uploads/tx_gspublication/consult-ftth-mutualisation-immeuble-juillet07.pdf.
9 La situation concurrentielle des fourreaux de communications électroniques et leur régulation éventuellehttp://www.arcep.fr/uploads/tx_gspublication/consult-ftth-fourreaux-juillet07.pdf.
10 Le déploiement et la mutualisation de la partie terminale des réseaux en fibre optique (22 mai 2008) e Consultation publique sur le déploiement et la mutualisation de la partie terminale des réseaux en fibre optiquehttp://www.arcep.fr/index.php?id=8455&tx_gspublication_pi1[typo]=8&tx_gspublication_pi1[uidDocument]=607&cHash=e6f0f1eaa2.
11 Recommendations on the implementation of last drop sharing of the last part on optical fibre networkshttp://www.arcep.fr/uploads/tx_gspublication/recomd-mutual-ftth-1008-eng.pdf.
12 Projet de décision de l’ARCEP précisant les modalités de l’accès aux lignes de communications électroniques à très haut débit en fibre optiquehttp://www.arcep.fr/uploads/tx_gspublication/projdec-modal-acces-fibre-220609.pdf.
13 Document transmis au Conseil de la Concurrence relatif à l’analyse faite par l’ARCEP des marchés du haut débit et du très haut débithttp://www.arcep.fr/uploads/tx_gspublication/adm-htdebit-conseil-concurrence-avril08.pdf.
14 Synthèse de la première phase des travaux d’évaluation et d’expérimentation relatifs à la mutualisation des réseaux en fibre optiquehttp://www.arcep.fr/uploads/tx_gspublication/synt-fibre-thd-150409.pdf.
15 Rapport relatif au déploiement des réseaux en fibre optique suite à la première phase de travaux d’expérimentation et d’évaluation menés sous l’égide de l’ARCEPhttp://www.arcep.fr/uploads/tx_gspublication/rapport-fibre-thd-070409.pdf.
16 Tableau de bord du Très Haut Débit au 31 décembre 2008http://www.arcep.fr/fileadmin/reprise/observatoire/tres-haut-debit/2009/tab-fibre-thd-070409.pdf.
17 Modèle de convention pour l’utilisation des installations de génie civil pour les réseaux de communications électroniqueshttp://www.arcep.fr/uploads/tx_gspublication/convention-type-_fourreaux-avril2009.pdf.
18 http://www.arcep.fr/fileadmin/reprise/dossiers/fibre/conf-220609/convention-type-thd-220609.pdf.
19 Décret n° 2009-54 du 15 janvier 2009http://www.legifrance.gouv.fr/affichTexte.do;jsessionid=4FFB0C120CB223B93E99BB97E99D6B3E.tpdjo10v_2?cidTexte=JORFTEXT000020099745&categorieLien=id.
20 Next Generation Networks: Fiber Optic Accesshttp://www.eett.gr/conference2008/pdf/Curien.pdf.
21 Très haut débit - Projet de décision de l’ARCEP transmis pour avis à l’Autorité de la concurrence relatif aux modalités de l’accès aux lignes de communications électroniques à très haut débit en fibre optique et aux cas dans lesquels le point de mutualisation peut se situer dans les limites de la propriété privéehttp://www.arcep.fr/uploads/tx_gspublication/projdec-mutual-fibre-280709.pdf.
22 22 September 2009: Deployment of very high-speed optical fibre networkshttp://www.autoritedelaconcurrence.fr/user/standard.php?id_rub=316&id_article=1248.
23 http://ec.europa.eu/information_society/policy/ecomm/doc/implementation_enforcement/article_7/summary_decisions/fr_2009_0993.pdf e http://circa.europa.eu/Public/irc/infso/ecctf/library?l=/commissionsdecisions/fr-2009-0993_enpdf/_EN_1.0_&a=d.
24 Décision n° 2009-1106 de l'Autorité de régulation des communications électroniques et des postes en date du 22 décembre 2009 e Recommandation de l’Autorité de régulation des communications électroniques et des posteshttp://www.arcep.fr/uploads/tx_gsavis/09-1106.pdf.
25 In general terms the definition of high-density areas follows the following selection methods: a) urban units in Metropolitan France with a population of more than 250,000 inhabitants, b) those urban units from a) in which at least 20% of the housing units are located in large blocks of flats with more than 12 units, c) urban areas were selected where at least 50% of the housing units fulfil the requisites of b) or others where plans to perform optical fibre rollout have been announced.
26 The exception to this rule includes all buildings connected to accessible ducts (as in Paris) and all the buildings with twelve or more flats, in which cases the shared access point may be found inside the building.
27 In the first phase of this consultation the parties would manifest their interest in pre-financing the installation of fibre as well as the technical configurations desired (shared or dedicated fibre line, intention to install interconnection equipment, etc.). In the second phase the "operator of the building" will be able to enter further and more detailed discussions with the operators manifesting interest subsequent to the first phase. This second phase may lead to an agreement with the interested third party operators, which may be formalized through a signed convention with the "operator of the building".
28 Comprising , among others, the following elements - address of pooling point and addresses of the buildings which it serves, means of access, technical characteristics of the equipment to be installed.
29 Pooling point or point of flexibility is where the connection is made between the optical fibre cables of different flats and different service providers.
30 FT, for its part, considers that the additional cost would amount to about 40%.
31 5 août 2008 - Publication de la loi de modernisation de l’économie e LOI n° 2008-776 du 4 août 2008 de modernisation de l'économie (1)http://www.telecom.gouv.fr/archives-actualites/2008/aout/5-aout-2008-publication-loi-modernisation-economie-1818.html.
32 ARCEP pleased by operators’ publication of their FTTH technical and pricing reference offershttp://www.arcep.fr/index.php?id=8571&L=1&tx_gsactualite_pi1[uid]=1251&tx_gsactualite_pi1[annee]=0&tx_gsactualite_pi1[theme]=0&tx_gsactualite_pi1[motscle]=&tx_gsactualite_pi1[backID]=2122&cHash=608731c4c7.
33 L'intervention des collectivités territoriales dans le secteur des communications électroniqueshttp://www.arcep.fr/uploads/tx_gspublication/rapport-bilan-rip-221208.pdf.
34 DSP (Délégation de Service Public). A contract whereby a moral person of public law entrusts the management of a public service to the responsibility of a public or private entity, with the remuneration of the management of the service related to its operating results.
35 An SEM (Société d'Economie Mixte) is a public limited company whose capital is mostly owned by one or more public entities (State, local or other public entity). This stake can reach a maximum of 85% of total capital. At least one private entity must hold a stake in the SEM, which may be another SEM.
36 Rôle des collectivités territoriales dans le déploiement de la fibrehttp://www.arcep.fr/fileadmin/reprise/dossiers/fibre/role-collectivites-fibre-thd-070409.pdf.
37 Loi n° 2009-1572 du 17 décembre 2009 relative à la lutte contre la fracture numérique publiée au Journal Officiel du 18 décembre 2009http://www.assemblee-nationale.fr/13/dossiers/fracture_numerique.asp e PROPOSITION DE LOI relative à la lutte contre la fracture numérique (Texte définitif)http://www.senat.fr/petite-loi-ameli/2009-2010/138.html.
38 State aid: Commission approves public financing worth €59 million for broadband project in the French Hauts-de-Seine departmenthttp://europa.eu/rapid/pressReleasesAction.do?reference=IP/09/1391&format=PDF&aged=0&language=EN&guiLanguage=pt (PDF) and C(2009) 7426 finalhttp://ec.europa.eu/eu_law/state_aids/comp-2008/n331-08.pdf. State aid: Commission approves public financing worth €59 million for broadband project in the French Hauts-de-Seine departmenthttp://europa.eu/rapid/pressReleasesAction.do?reference=IP/09/1391.
39 France Offers Loans To Boost Web Speedhttp://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704541004575011113378158220.html?mod=WSJ_Tech_LEFTTopNews.
40 ARCEP welcomes the agreement between Bouygues Telecom and SFR on optical fibre rollouts in high-density areashttp://www.arcep.fr/index.php?id=8571&L=1&tx_gsactualite_pi1[uid]=1339&tx_gsactualite_pi1[annee]=&tx_gsactualite_pi1[theme]=&tx_gsactualite_pi1[motscle]=&tx_gsactualite_pi1[backID]=26&cHash=949495f5aa.
41 Technical trials to prepare for ultra high-speed mobile rolloutshttp://www.arcep.fr/index.php?id=8571&L=1&tx_gsactualite_pi1[uid]=1336&tx_gsactualite_pi1[annee]=&tx_gsactualite_pi1[theme]=&tx_gsactualite_pi1[motscle]=&tx_gsactualite_pi1[backID]=26&cHash=582663b88c.
42 Consultation publique - Programme national «très haut débit»http://www.telecom.gouv.fr/fonds_documentaire/consultations/10/consthd.pdf.
