For Orange, ADSL technology still has many years ahead of it. The incumbent operator ensures that the deployment of the fiber optic network, supposed to replace copper, takes a long time and will not allow all of the country people to be connected. Under these conditions, ADSL will not be replaced for 10 to 15 years, estimates Orange. Explanations.
The advent of fiber optics, it is not for now, assures Stéphane Richard, CEO of Orange, during an interview with our colleagues from 01Net, on the sidelines of Show Hello. “The horizon is beyond 10 years” begins by advancing the manager. “Not before a minimum of 10 to 15 years” explains Stéphane Richard in the rest of the interview.
For Orange, it is important not to drop ADSL
Stéphane Richard reminds that the deployment of optical fiber is a very long-term job, especially in the areas furthest from cities. According to Stéphane Richard, only 90% of the of the country population will be equipped with a fiber optic connection. The remaining 10% will be connected “to very high speed by other means, satellite and perhaps mobile”. As usual, the CEO defends ADSL against optical fiber. “ADSL is a network to which we are very attached… We do not sacrifice all fiber,” he assures us. With a total fleet of 2,405 million fiber customers, Orange nevertheless remains the king of optical fiber.
In the process, he allows himself a tackle at the Freebox Delta from Free, which offers 10 Gbits in optical fiber. According to him, “it does not correspond to a need, nor even to identified uses, in human sight, in any case certainly not in the development horizons of a box” asserts Stéphane Richard. The man takes the opportunity to predict once again the disappearance of boxes with the advent of the cloud. “We are in the last years of existence of the boxes” prophesies the CEO.
This is not the first time that the leader of Orange has tempered the expectations of subscribers in terms of very high speed. Last November, Orange already estimated “to need the copper network for at least 20 years”. Under these conditions, the telecom, which has a universal service obligation, has decided to invest more in the ADSL network in the future. In October, Arcep accused Orange of letting its copper network deteriorate, thus accumulating breakdowns. If Orange puts most of the malfunctions on the account of lightning, he nevertheless promised to correct the situation from 2021.
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