French watchdog has worked to identify financial and operational problems of last mile connections to fibre since 2020
Arcep has published a summary of its work and recommendations for pricing rules in last mile connections. The French telecoms watchdog has been working to identify financial and operational problems in last mile connections to fibre networks since late 2020.
At a time of massive FTTH network deployment and with the copper local loop due to be switched off in 2030, the regulator wanted to ensure a smooth transition for end-users.
Last mile connections can fail for various reasons and operators do not always handle them satisfactorily. For example, there can be poor communication between providers or non-standard connections implemented.
Arcep published a first progress report in November 2021, after it received responses from operators, and an action plan. It is also now publishing contributions it received to the public consultation about the issues which ran from 12 January 2023 to 13 February 2023.
The work summary and recommendations published today aim to facilitate installation of all last mile connections, ensure their high quality and that competition between commercial operators is fair and effective.
Alongside the work on pricing rules, Arcep set up a working group dedicated to operational issues, in autumn 2021. It is working to define the information an infrastructure operator (wholesaler) must provide to a commercial (retail) operator, to the technicians managing failed installations and how to handle connection failures. This is part of the work that Arcep is doing to improve the quality of optical fibre networks.
The Authority provides regular progress updates on all of this work on its website.