It will take more time and more money. This is the message sent by the Court of auditors, in a report highly critical of the deployment, current, high-speed broadband in France. Initiated in 2013, this site is both huge and like no other, which is to deploy fiber throughout the territory, has been delayed : if the fiber covers 50 % of the population as expected this year, the goal of a territory to 100% in very-high-speed by 2022 will not be not reached, to prevent the sages of the rue Cambon. They rely instead on… 2030 ! And this delay leads to additional costs. The Court of auditors figure as well now to 34.9 billion euros the total cost of the deployment of very high broadband in France, instead of the $ 2 0 billion originally planned (including $ 7 billion of public support).
The fact is that in France we chose to deploy fiber to the home : FTTH, as it is said in the jargon of the telecom. The best technology is, of course, but also the most expensive and the longest to implement. Especially in areas less dense. The plan of high speed broadband plans, as well as 80 % of the territory is covered by FTTH by 2022. For the remaining 20%, we will use other techniques, they also considered high-speed broadband.
there are Two main reasons
in order To explain these investments to be heavier than expected, the Court of auditors puts forward two reasons. First, the State plan did not take into account the costs of connecting final subscribers to the optical fiber in a rural area : a total of 4.5 billion euros. Then, the delays accumulate in the areas with the least dense, which are also the least profitable. This is where the State and the territorial authorities to fund the deployment of high speed broadband, for approximately 43 % of the French population. The Court of accounts has calculated that in 2022, in the small towns and the countryside, even as the plan was to be completed, there would be 7 million homes to cover, which represents a total of € 10.4 billion.
in addition, beyond 2022, the Court finds that there is a “impasse on funding of at least $ 12 billion ” for the local authorities and the State, in the absence of private financing for the networks they were supposed to be co-financed. Finally, the Court pin also the telecom operators who invest in the networks of major cities. Areas moderately dense that Orange and SFR were divided, it regrets that the commitments of the realization of the networks are ” released and not very transparent, so that failures manifest last for years “.
The publication of the report, in full presidential campaign, does not lack spice. The topic of the “digital divide” is eminently political, the government is regularly challenged by the local elected officials. To do not take more of delay, the Court suggests, for instance, to have recourse to other technologies that the FTTH (see cons below).
Some dispute the findings of the Court. “The plan already foresees a number of technologies very-high-speed “, indicates a source in Bercy, for which the financing problems raised by the report would arise only if the plan was to do FTTH to 100% of the territory. Today, however, it is expected that about 80 % of the Hexagon. For its part, the Avicca (Association of towns and communities) wants to be reassuring. She believes that ” the contracts awarded by the community today show clearly that the private investors of the long-term, the operators and manufacturers are now taking the risk of the rapid transition from copper to fibre, including in rural areas “.
Fabienne Schmitt, Les Echos
No comments:
Post a Comment