According to a study conducted by UFC-Que Choisir, 11.8 million French consumers do not have a satisfactory very high speed connection.
Nearly one in five households, or 11.8 million consumers, is still deprived of a “real” very high-speed internet connection, according to a study published Tuesday by UFC-Que Choisirwhich pleads in particular for the creation of “an enforceable right” to quality internet access.
Launched in 2013 so that all French people have an ultra-fast internet connection and that France accelerates the installation of fiber optics on its territory, the French very high speed (THD) government plan has mobilized almost 36 billion euros in public and private investments in ten years, according to France Strategy, an organization attached to Matignon.
Victims of the digital divide
“If the official figures show that the objective has been achieved”, UFC-Que Choisir underlines that its study “requires, however, to attenuate the satisfaction of the government”, while for 17.2% of households, or 11.8 million consumers, access to this very high speed (a speed greater than 30 Mbits/s) “is only possible by subscribing to offers using hertzian technologies (fixed 4G, THD radio) or satellite”.
“However, these are second-rate technologies compared to offers using traditional wired networks” such as fiber optics, adds the association, specifying that “it is the most rural departments which are the main victims of the divide digital”.
At the end of 2022, the number of very high speed subscriptions was estimated at 21.5 million, according to the Telecoms Regulatory Authority (Arcep), including 18.1 million in optical fiber.
The “great fiber project”
The government has announced the objective of a “generalization” of optical fiber by 2025, while the historic copper network of the operator Orange, the only source of access to the telephone network for several million French people, must be closed by 2030.
“We must find an agreement” between the State, the operators and the communities to take up the remaining “challenges” of the “major fiber project” and to distribute the financial effort “in an equitable and fair way”, declared Wednesday the Minister Delegate for the Digital Transition, Jean-Noël Barrot, before the Senate Economic Affairs Committee.
To fight against the digital divide and allow “real” access to very high speed for all consumers, the UFC-Que Choisir pleads in particular for “an enforceable right” to quality internet access, “based both on the determination by law of the minimum speeds which consumers must benefit from, and the compensation they should receive if these speeds are not reached”.
