2023-09-04 16:58:00
The negotiations promise to be tense. On the telecoms front, the government has a major priority: to ensure that Emmanuel Macron’s promise to bring fiber to all French people by 2025 is kept. But it is, for the moment, not won. Many large cities are not completely covered, and nothing says that the operators, who have no obligation here, will finish the job. At the same time, in medium-sized towns, Orange has been lagging behind for a long time.
Finally, in the countryside, approximately 2 million households, who live in isolated areas that are difficult to access, are not currently the subject of any connection project. And for good reason: the bill appears salty. More than a year ago, InfraNum, the largest telecoms federation, assessed the note at around 3 billion euros.
Orange in the sights of Bercy
The government is today discussing the terms of an agreement with Orange, SFR, Bouygues Telecom and Free so that “fiber for all” becomes a reality. To achieve its ends, it does not exclude, according to our information, sanctioning certain operators. In his viewfinder is notably Orange. The incumbent operator has not honored its fiber coverage commitments for medium-sized towns. The French telecom leader faces a fine of up to 3% of its turnover – which amounted to 43.5 billion euros last year.
For their part, telecom operators have other expectations. They are counting on these negotiations to get a big tax rebate. This is the message sent to the government by Nicolas Guérin, the president of the French Federation of Telecoms (FFT), the operators’ lobby, on August 29 at a conference in Paris. “The commitment to a moderation of the specific taxation applicable to the telecoms sector” constitutes, according to him, “a prerequisite” has “the conclusion of a win-win agreement”. « Indeed, in 2021, operators will pay 1.5 billion euros in specific taxation applicable only to the telecoms sector.he denounced, he who is also secretary general of Orange.
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