French operators ramp up FTTP roll-out with 1.2 mln premises passed in Q3

French FTTP networks covered another 1.2 million homes and businesses in the three months to September, a new high after the record 1.1 million premises passed in the previous quarter. Overall, 16.7 million premises had access to FTTP services, up 34 percent year-on-year, said regulator Arcep in its latest fixed broadband report.  

The quarterly growth included nearly 340,000 additional premises passed on public initiative fibre networks in less densely populated areas. Including cable and VDSL, 22.4 million French premises could receive high-speed broadband of at least 30 Mbps at end-September, up 14 percent year-on-year.

Arcep noted that Orange and SFR need to accelerate their FTTP roll-out further if they are to meet the coverage commitments undertaken in the AMII agreement, which mainly concerns mid-size towns where the two operators are investing without the help of public subsidies.

FTTP subscriptions rose 47 percent year-on-year to 6.4 million, or 21.5 percent of the overall fixed broadband market. Quarterly net additions improved to 540,000, from 495,000 in the three months to June.

Overall, fixed broadband connections increased by nearly 170,000 since June to reach 29.5 million at end-September. Out of this total, 10.6 million subscribers received speeds over 30 Mbps, across FTTP, cable, VDSL and LTE-based fixed offers.