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Is France’s plan for nationwide high-speed internet by 2025 on track?

France launched a high-speed internet plan nearly a decade ago aiming to ensure fast connection times for everyone throughout urban and rural areas by 2025, becoming the first European country to do so. So how is that going so far?

Protruding wires in a French data centre.
Protruding wires in a French data centre. The government wants all French households to have high-speed internet by 2025. (Photo by ALAIN JOCARD / AFP)

During the pandemic high-speed internet has become more important than ever before. Increasing numbers of people are working remotely and Covid restrictions and infections have left many spending nights and days in watching Netflix. 

“Digitalisation has allowed our economy to resist the health crisis,” wrote Jean Castex

Three out of four French people say that the roll out of high-speed should be a priority for the government. And many in the rural France in particular complain about slow connection speeds.

In a bid to address this problem, the Plan France Très Haut Débit (French high-speed internet plan) was launched back in 2013. 

Backed with state financing to the tune of €3.57 billion, its purpose was to install digital infrastructure to ensure that everyone in France has access to high-speed internet by 2025.

Key to this process is the deployment of fibre optic cables. Once put installed in a geographical area or directly in individual houses, this technology can send information at 70 percent the speed of light – in other words, it can allow you to load articles on The Local France at a phenomenal pace. 

So how exactly is this mission going? 

Currently, two thirds of French households have access to high-speed internet, although these tend to be concentrated on urban areas.

MAP When will my part of France get high-speed internet

The French government says that the country has installed more fibre-optic cables than any of its neighbours.  Six million extra households gained access to high-speed internet, thanks to these cables, in 2020 alone. That year, the government invested a further €570 million on top of the Plan France Très Haut Débit spending to speed up the roll out. 

The rate at which households are gaining access to high-speed internet is four times faster than in 2015. 

This graphic shows the rate at which households are gaining access to fibre optic cabling that ensures quick internet access. The different colours correspond to the number of households gaining access during different quarters of the year Q1, Q2 etc. Source: Agence Nationale de Cohésion des Territoires

In a report about the Plan France Très Haut Débit published in August 2021, Castex said “In three years, the digital divide has largely receded.” 

But a graphic in that same paper revealed there wasn’t égalité across France and that some parts of the country did still enjoy better access to fibre optic cables than others. 

In the dark green zones, which include Paris, Yvelines, Essone and Val d’Oise were more than 90 percent covered by fibre optic connections in 2021. 

But many départements had a fibre optic coverage of less than 30 percent including: Landes, the Dordogne, Ardèche, the Hautes-Alpes, Savoie, Creuse, Vendée, the Côtes d’Armor, Orne, Yonne, Nièvre, Haute Saône and Jura. 

A map shows how much access different French départements have to fibre optic connection. The darker the green, the faster the internet. Source: Agence Nationale de Cohésion des Territoires

The government want to expand fibre optic coverage to 80 percent by the end of this year. It has made an extra €150 million available from the “France Relance” initiative – a broad economic programme set up in 2020 to help the country bounce back from the economic fall out of the Covid-19 pandemic – to help achieve this. 

Ariase, an internet service provider in France, estimates that if the deployment of fibre optic cables continues to accelerate, the government will surpass its target and bring high speed internet to 87 percent of households by the end of 2022

If you live in an area that is connected via fibre optic cables, you do of course still need to pay a subscription to an internet provider to be able to surf the web. 

When will my area install fibre-optic cables? 

You can check when fibre-optic cables will be installed in your area via an interactive map made by the ARCEP, France’s electronic communications authority. 

When using the map, you can should on the “Modes de vue” box on the righthand side. Then click “Avancé” and select “Vue prévisionnelle des déploiements fibre.”

This allows you to see whether the installation of cable is complete, began in 2021 or whether it will begin in 2022 or 2023. 

Other internet policies 

The government categorises some 13 million French people a “distanced from digitalisation” – in other words, technologically illiterate. It allocated a budget of €250 million in 2021 to help people better grasp how to use the internet. 

Part of this budget has gone on a scheme called “Aidants Connectin which social workers and other government employees give tutorials, some of which are in-person, to help people struggling to complete administrative tasks online. The initial series of trainings has now passed but more might become available. If you are interested in receiving training, you should sign up to the newsletter via the form at the bottom of this page, to receive alerts if new slots become available.

In terms of mobile coverage, the country is doing much better and the regional differences are far less pronounced. 

The government launched a “Mobile New Deal” in January 2018, in conjunction with telecoms companies, which saw thousands more areas gain access to 4G internet. More than 97 percent of the French population now live in 4G zones.

As part of the Mobile New Deal Initiative, many mobile operators, including Orange and SFR now offer 4G internet boxes and fixed tarif in areas where fibre optic connection internet connection is limited. Once these boxes are installed, you will be able to use WiFi generated by 4G signal. 

Member comments

  1. Now the thing about fibre optic is that it is best laid underground to minimise disruption. Here by us they are stringing this across the existing poles that hold the telephone and power cables so we will have the same issue that we have two to three times a year of our friendly local farmer cutting the line or taking out one or more of the poles that support it. With the current cabling it takes Orange around 6 weeks to repair each time…but you cannot just patch fibre optic (unless things have changed)…if the cable is snapped the entire length has to be replaced, adding to the cost and I am sure, delay in getting it done.

  2. Interactive map access just comes up with “Votre navigateur Internet ne permet pas d’afficher cette page. Veuillez le mettre à jour.” ?????

  3. Our village did the same. The cabling can go underground but the commune has to pay for the extra costs. We are a poor village with just 50 houses, and the commune cannot afford the underground version.

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TECH

Why Google searches in Europe no longer show maps

New EU legislation has led to changes for internet users in Europe - including the way search results appear on Google.

Why Google searches in Europe no longer show maps

Internet users across the world have been accustomed to searching for addresses or locations on Google and immediately afterwards seeing Google Maps pop up in the results, allowing them with one click to be taken to the Maps page.

However, for people living in EU and EEA countries, this function stopped appearing in early March as a result of new EU regulations intended to decrease the ‘gatekeeping’ power of tech giants.

Now, when searching a specific address on your laptop, you will continue to see a small map in the centre of the screen, but will be unable to click on the map and be taken straight to Google Maps. The ‘Maps’ button that once appeared below the search bar, along with ‘Images’ or ‘News’ no longer appears either. 

Instead, you’ll need to head to the website www.google.com/maps or click ‘Directions’ to use the Maps function.

The change is most noticeable on a laptop or tablet device. When using searching an address on a smartphone, users may still be redirected to the Google Maps app when clicking the map image.

Why the change?

The Digital Markets Act (DMA) was voted on in 2022, and the regulations contained in it became enforceable on Wednesday.

The goal of the legislation was to manage competition and end the domination of large tech companies, such as Google, Apple, Facebook, Amazon, Microsoft and ByteDance (TikTok) within the European market.

These tech giants have been accused of promoting their own services to the detriment of other similar options from competitors, as well as acting as gatekeepers to prevent other companies from entering or growing in the market.

The goal is also to offer consumers with more options.

For example, when searching for nearby bars or restaurants, the results might have taken the user directly to Google Maps instead of other sites, such as Yelp.

A representative from Google explained the French media Franceinfo: “As part of our efforts to comply with the Digital Markets Regulation, we have made a number of changes to the way search results are displayed, including removing certain features.

“Users in the EU will no longer see the ‘Maps’ shortcut at the top of the search page,” they said.

The European Commission’s objective was to allow the “10,000 other online platforms – mostly small and medium-sized enterprises – to operate on the digital market,” French media Le Point reported.

Are there any other changes related to this?

Yes – people in the EU/EEA may have noticed that they received a question from the ‘Messenger’ service asking if they want to create a new account or continue using the app with their existing Facebook account.

This is because Messenger and Facebook are technically different services now. The same goes for Instagram and Facebook.

Even though both are part of ‘Meta’, the company will have to offer people the choice to keep their accounts separate, in an effort to allow users to choose whether they want their personal data to be tracked across sites.

Similarly, people in the EU using Apple products will no longer have to go through the Apple App store to install apps – other options will be available.

For example, Microsoft is reportedly working on a rival ‘gaming’ app store.

Eventually, the DMA will also force messaging services to allow users to contact each other – so you would be able to send a message from one platform to another. 

Is this just in the EU?

As the Digital Markets Act is a piece of EU legislation, it only applies to the European Union and EEA countries. However, other countries, including South Korea, Japan and the UK, are looking into ways they might rein in tech giants with similar proposals.

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