Orange France to invest EUR 2 bln in fibre network by 2015

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Orange France to invest EUR 2 bln in fibre network by 2015 Thursday 11 February 2010

Orange France plans to invest approximately EUR 2 billion between now and 2015 in deploying fibre in France's big cities. The company said conditions were now in place for a resumption of investment following the recent clarification of the regulatory framework for very high-speed broadband deployment. Orange already invests nearly EUR 3 billion a year in its network and infrastructure. The new programme does not involve any substantial change in the amount to be invested in the country, where a large proportion of the spend goes towards network and service infrastructure modernisation and maintenance. The group's fibre pre-deployment phase saw 33,000 customers subscribing to its fibre services as of 30 September 2009. Deployment will now resume in the Paris region and nine other Zone 1 metro areas with very high population density where it has already begun, including Bordeaux, Grenoble, Lille, Lyon, Marseille, Metz, Nantes, Nice and Toulouse. New cities such as Cannes, Montpellier, Orleans, Rennes, Strasbourg and Toulon will be added from this year. Orange also intends to invest in Zone 2 moderately dense areas, with a test phase in Chatou and Oullins before a wider deployment in six towns from this year: Brest, Dijon, Le Havre, Pau, Reims and Valenciennes. Orange aims for its fibre to be present in all regions of mainland France, in around 45 towns and cities, by 2012, then all departments of mainland France and three overseas departments by 2015. The company is open to partnerships with local authorities in less dense Zone 3 areas for ramping up speeds on the existing FTTC network.