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PROPERTY

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

The French government wants to ensure that the entire country has access to high-speed internet by 2025 - so here's how you can check when it's scheduled to come to your part of France.

Published: 7 January 2022 12:03 CET
A technician connects fibre optic cables to a building in France.
A technician connects fibre optic cables to a building in France. There is an interactive tool to see when these cables will be installed in your area. (Photo by BERTRAND LANGLOIS / AFP)

France claims to have the widest high-speed internet coverage of any country in Europe. 

Two thirds of French households currently have access to high-speed internet. The government wants to ensure than 80 percent of French households will have access by the end of 2022 and that the entire country is covered by 2025. 

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

But many people living in the French countryside have frustratingly slow internet connection. This is because not enough fibre optic cables have been installed in a number of rural areas. 

The installation of fibre optic cables, which can send information at 70 percent the speed of light, is essential for high speed internet – unless you are using 4G (mobile internet supplied through a cellular network). 

Currently, there are significant regional differences in which these fibre optic cables have been installed as the map below demonstrates. 

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 dark green areas, including Paris, have excellent fibre optic coverage while lighter green areas, mostly scattered around rural areas of the country do not. 

When will I get access to high-speed internet?

Fortunately, there is a useful tool to see when fibre optic cables will be installed near you. 

France’s electronic communications regulator, ARCEP, have made an interactive map which allows you to check whether the installation of cable in your area is complete, began in 2021, or the year when it is set to begin.

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

This is the setting you should select to see when fibre optic cables will be installed in your area. Credit: ARCEP

Once you have done this, there is a box on the top left hand corner of the screen that you can use to search your address. 

On the right hand side of the screen, there is a key which tells you what how the different colours on the map correspond to the planned fibre installation date. 

Don’t get too excited if your installation date is imminent though – installation itself typically take 12-18 months, according to ARCEP. 

If you scroll on your computer, you can zoom with great detail on individual communes, although street names are not listed. 

Parts of map which are shaded in light blue or are not shaded at all are areas where data on fibre optic installation is still being compiled or is otherwise nonexistant. 

The map reveals that extensive work is planned over the next couple of years – which will likely come as welcome news to many of you living in the countryside. 

Member comments

  1. While it is most advantag eous to have good speed for business, it would also be good if for the actual business’s to make sure there own systems worked properly, it is so annoying when web sites can’t give info or take orders in a reasonable way & time. The only site that works well is amazon, never a problem.

  2. We’ve had fibre in our village for nearly a year now, but the operators won’t connect to our row of houses because there’s no manhole outside………
    We’re using a 4g+ router giving around 70mbs for the time being, otherwise we’ll have to pay the several thousand € cost to install, pah…..

  3. If it’s anything like the roll-out of mains drains which we were promised 25 years ago, I’m not holding my breath

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For members

TAXES

Explained: France’s exit tax

Planning on leaving France? You may, depending on your circumstances, be charged the 'exit tax'.

Published: 11 April 2024 11:28 CEST
Explained: France's exit tax

Like some other European countries, France does have an exit tax for those (French or foreign) who are leaving the country. It’s known by the English name l’Exit tax.

However, it won’t affect most people.

Only those who have been tax resident for a minimum six years of the 10 years immediately before they permanently move out of the country are liable to pay an exit tax – if, that is, they own property, titles or rights worth a minimum of €800,000, or that represent 50 percent of a company’s social profits.

If that affects you, the best advice is to seek expert individual financial advice before moving out of France for good. The relevant page on the French government’s impot.gouv.fr website says it is possible to defer payments, and some relief is available.

Because of the relatively high figures involved, this tax is irrelevant for most people. That said, however, you will still have to inform tax authorities that you are moving out of the country because you may still have income, property and capital gains taxes to pay.

Income tax

You must inform the tax office that you are moving and give them your new address so that your tax declarations can be transferred to your new address.

You are liable for tax on everything you earned in France prior to your departure as well as on any French earnings that are taxable in France under international tax treaties that you earned after your departure.

The year of your departure, you declare your previous year’s earnings as normal – declarations in spring 2024 are for earnings in 2023.

A year later, you will have to declare any earnings taxable in France from January 1st up to the date of your departure, and any French-sourced income taxable source until December 31st of the year of your departure.

If you continue to have any French-sourced income – such as from renting out a French property – you will have to declare that income annually, using the non-residents declaration form.

Property taxes

You will have property taxes to pay if you own a French property on January 1st of any given year – whether it is occupied or not. 

Property tax bills come out in the autumn, but they refer to the situation on January 1st of that year, so even if you sell your property you will usually have the pay a final property tax bill the following year.

Moreover, if you receive income from property in France or have rights related to that property (such as shared ownership or stock in property companies), as well as any additional revenue connected to the property, during the year you leave France, you will be required to pay taxes on these earnings.

If any property assets in France exceed €1.3 million on January 1st of a given year, you may also have to pay the wealth tax (IFI).

READ ALSO What is France’s wealth tax and who pays it?

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Capital gains tax 

If you sell your French property or share of a French property, you may be liable for capital gains tax at a rate of 19 percent. It will also be subject to social security contributions at the overall rate of 17.2 percent.

Capital gains tax varies depending on how long you have owned the property and whether it was a second home or your main residence.

READ ALSO How much capital gains tax will I have to pay if I sell my French property?

The good news is, if you move to another EU country, or any country that has a specific tax agreement with France, you may be exempt from capital gains tax for non-resident sellers on the sale of a property that was your principal residence in France.

If you move elsewhere, you may be able to claim exemption on capital gains tax up to €150,000. As always, you should seek expert financial advice.

Tell Social Security

Inform social security that you are leaving France permanently – and return your carte vitale if you have one. If you do not, you may be liable for any benefits you receive to which you are no longer entitled.

More mundane tasks involve informing utility and water companies, your internet provider, if you have one, the phone company, your insurance companies, banks – and La Poste, who will be able to forward your mail for up to 12 months, for a fee…

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