Alexandre Boero November 29, 2021 at 7:20109 p.m. Alexandre Boero for Clubic

Copper stops closer as fiber optics continues to be deployed in France.How is the start of the rocking and what is it for the years to come?

The end of the copper network is not a sensational evocation or an hypothesis, it is an event in acknowledged which is now only a matter of time.In theory, the end of the famous copper network is scheduled for 2030.This network allows ADSL subscribers to have internet access and the fixed telephone.It is expected that Orange, historic infrastructure operator, unveils its plan for the stopping of copper at the beginning of December.Will then remain to put all parties (operators, regulators, authorities) agree.The telephone line as we have known in recent years will no longer exist.

Millions of French people are imposed on the fiber

The marketing of the copper network has already stopped on part of the territory.The 10 million households today eligible for optical fiber will no longer be able to claim an ADSL offer by the end of the year.In other words, a person or a family who moves into an area covered by fiber can no longer be offered a copper offer.Same thing in the event of a change of operator on a covered area.

In the coming months, Orange even announces that 11 to 12 million premises should be affected by the commercial closure.Since this fall, some 3 million households and businesses can no longer claim a copper connection.

In addition to the progression of optical fiber in the territory, a second element pushes telecom operators to say "stop" to the copper network.This is its cost in the broad sense, simply.First there is the environmental cost, since the optical fiber is much less energy -consuming than the copper, and the maintenance cost of the latter, increasingly high, the network being very aging.

The upcoming copper stop added to the imminent end of RTC, the "switched telephone network"

Once is not custom, the four operators, Orange, SFR, Bouygues Telecom and Free, all agree on the principle of stopping copper.But the implementation of this final judgment in time is still to be discussed.At Free for example, there is an "end of support", which would result in the end of repairs in the event of a breakdown on the copper network.The solution is radical and contrasts with the speech of Bouygues Telecom, which calls for a "maintenance of the quality of the copper".

Interest, for telecoms, would undoubtedly be to ensure the very soft transition possible.Because optical fiber does not tend to convince everyone: there are skeptics, those who do not have the utility, and those who remain attached to copper.

Another project, even more short term, is underway and joins that of the next copper judgment: that of the progressive judgment of RTC, the "switched telephone network", a historic technology used to provide a fixed telephone service, whichsuffers from his obsolescence.The copper network is the physical medium that delivers T -taking in dwellings and premises.RTC is the technology that connects the phone to T taking without any intermediate box or box.The interest is to have him migrate, by 2023, towards more modern technologies, such as the voice on IP (VoIP).The French who have a telephone line and use a handset connected to their wall outlet will not be impacted before 2023.Those who use fixed telephony via their internet box, on the other hand, will not be impacted at all.RTC technology sees its number of subscribers decrease by 10 % every year, and this for several years.By 2023, 85 % of the park should have migrated to modern technology.

Source : Le Figaro