Broadband News
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High-speed broadband still going slow in France
04 Jun 2010 | 14.48 Europe/London
The number of broadband users in France is still increasing, but the majority of new connections are made over copper rather than fibre, according to preliminary figures from French telecoms regulator ARCEP.
The number of subscribers taking ADSL services increased by 315,000 in the previous quarter, to reach 18.81 million on 31 March 2010. Meanwhile the number of fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) subscribers rose by just 5,000, taking the total to 75,000.
Telecoms operators are disappointed with the FTTH numbers, and the reason becomes clear when you see how much fibre has been deployed across France. As of 31 March there were 41,000 buildings connected with fibre, bringing services to a total of 860,000 homes. That means only 8 percent of households with access to high-speed fibre-optic broadband are actually taking the service.
It should be pointed out that ARCEP's definition of FTTH is strict - the fibre must terminate inside the boundary of the home or appartment. The regulator counts fibre-to-the-building networks, such as that offered by cable operator Numericable, separately.
ARCEP also breaks out the numbers for next-generation access ("tres haut debit"), which is defined as a download speed of 50 Mbps or higher, and upload of 5 Mbps or more. Numericable has around 255,000 subscribers; when added to the FTTH figure this gives a grand total of 330,000 subscribers to high-speed broadband.
The number of subscribers taking ADSL services increased by 315,000 in the previous quarter, to reach 18.81 million on 31 March 2010. Meanwhile the number of fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) subscribers rose by just 5,000, taking the total to 75,000.
Telecoms operators are disappointed with the FTTH numbers, and the reason becomes clear when you see how much fibre has been deployed across France. As of 31 March there were 41,000 buildings connected with fibre, bringing services to a total of 860,000 homes. That means only 8 percent of households with access to high-speed fibre-optic broadband are actually taking the service.
It should be pointed out that ARCEP's definition of FTTH is strict - the fibre must terminate inside the boundary of the home or appartment. The regulator counts fibre-to-the-building networks, such as that offered by cable operator Numericable, separately.
ARCEP also breaks out the numbers for next-generation access ("tres haut debit"), which is defined as a download speed of 50 Mbps or higher, and upload of 5 Mbps or more. Numericable has around 255,000 subscribers; when added to the FTTH figure this gives a grand total of 330,000 subscribers to high-speed broadband.