France: European Commission endorses access rules on fibre in-building wiring

[ec] The French telecoms regulator, ARCEP, sets out the terms and conditions for access to inhouse fibre wiring in France. The proposed access regulation is to be imposed simultaneously on all operators rolling out fibre lines into the homes of consumers, regardless of whether these operators – also referred to as in-building operators – have significant market power or not. ARCEP intends to oblige all in-building operators to provide access to its in-building fibre network to alternative operators. This way, French consumers will be able to choose between several competing providers of high speed internet connections. For the very densely populated areas (defined by ARCEP in the draft decision as those areas where it is economically most profitable for operators to roll-out their fibre networks into the homes), ARCEP also obliges any in-building operator to meet reasonable requests from alternative operators to roll-out extra, fibre lines on condition that the requesting operator is willing to co-invest. Additionally, ARCEP defines where the in-building fibre connection point must be located.

Telecoms: Commission endorses French access rules on fibre in-building wiring