France - Fixed Broadband Market - Statistics and Analyses

Synopsis

France has one of the largest broadband subscriber bases in Europe. Growth in recent years has been bolstered by demand for high bandwidth services, which has prompted considerable investment in fibre infrastructure among telcos and regional governments. This has been supported by regulatory measures which have promoted access to Orange’s copper and fibre infrastructure for new entrants, as well as a national broadband program which involves an investment of more than €20 billion.

DSL still dominates the broadband market in terms of access lines, though the number of DSL lines is falling as customers are migrated to fibre infrastructure. Fibre deployments have grown substantially in recent years, with all of the major ISPs concentrating their investments in the platform with a view to promoting 1Gb/s services. There efforts have been encouraged by the regulator which is keen to see effective competition in fibre access. By June 2019 there were 5.8 million fibre connections, and fibre accounted for 57.7% of all superfast broadband connections nationally.

Although the cable footprint only reaches about 40% of the population, the dominant cableco Altice has upgraded its network to compete with DSL and has itself entered the DSL and fibre markets. Altice intends to provide national fibre coverage by 2025.

This report assesses France’s fixed broadband market, focussing on cable, DSL and the fast-developing FttP/C sectors. It reviews the strategies of the principal providers such as Orange, Iliad and Altice (SFR Group), and considers the regulatory status of LLU and access to fibre infrastructure.

Key developments:

Government proposes new measures to fill gaps in broadband availability;
Altice increases footprint of its 1Gb/s FttP service;
DSL subscriber base continues to fall;
Success of fibre co-investment deals among operators;
Report update includes the regulator's market data to June 2019, operator data to Q2 2019, recent market developments.

Companies mentioned in this report:

Orange, Iliad (Free), Altice (SFR Group), Bouygues Telecom

Table of Contents

Introduction and statistical overview

Market analysis
Broadband statistics
Regulatory issues

Government support

Hybrid Fibre Coax (HFC) networks
Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) networks
Fibre-to-the-Premises (FttP) networks

Introduction
Statistics
Orange
Iliad (Free)
SFR Group
Bouygues Telecom
Municipal projects
Fibre network sharing

Other fixed broadband services

Broadband Powerline (BPL)
Fixed wireless (Wi-Fi and WiMAX)

Wireless Local Loop (WLL)
WiMAX
WLAN/Wi-Fi
Internet via satellite

Appendix – Historic data
Related reports

List of Tables

Table 1 – Change in the number of broadband subscribers by platform – 2009 – 2019
Table 2 – Growth in the number of fixed broadband subscribers and penetration – 2009 – 2024
Table 3 – Growth in the number of superfast broadband connections – 2011 – 2019
Table 4 – Increase in the number of superfast broadband connections (>100Mb/s) by platform – 2011 – 2019
Table 5 – Change in broadband penetration by technology – 2007 – 2018
Table 6 – Change in the number of superfast cable broadband subscriptions – 2011 – 2019
Table 7 – Decline in the number of DSL subscribers – 2009 – 2019
Table 8 – Drop in the number of Orange’s DSL subscriptions – 2005 – 2019
Table 9 – Development of Free’s broadband revenue – 2006 – 2019
Table 10 – Growth in the number of Free’s broadband subscriber base – 2005 – 2019
Table 11 – Free broadband subscriber ARPU – 2013 – 2019
Table 12 – Growth in the number of SFR’s broadband subscriber base, by type – 2005 – 2019
Table 13 – Increase in the number of SFR broadband homes passed – 2009 – 2019
Table 14 – Increase in the number of FttP equipped and passed buildings – 2008 – 2019
Table 15 – Increase in the number of FttP subscribers – 2011 – 2019
Table 16 – Increase in the number of Orange’s fibre subscribers and connected premises– 2006 – 2019
Table 17 – Increase in the number of Free’s fibre subscribers – 2015 – 2019
Table 18 – Increase in the number of Bouygues Telecom’s broadband and fibre subscribers – 2010 – 2019
Table 19 – FttP subscriptions via shared networks – 2015 – 2019
Table 20 – Historic - Dial-up internet subscribers – 2005 – 2015
Table 21 – Historic - Internet users and penetration rate – 1995 – 2015
Table 22 – Historic - Dial-up internet traffic – 2004 – 2014
Table 23 – Historic - Cable broadband subscribers – 2000 – 2017
Table 24 – Historic - DSL subscribers – 2000 – 2009
Table 25 – Historic - Broadband subscribers by platform – 2000 – 2009
Table 26 – Historic - Proportion of premises covered by superfast broadband networks – 2012 – 2017

List of Charts

Chart 1 – Change in the number of broadband subscribers by platform – 2009 – 2019
Chart 2 – Growth in the number of fixed broadband subscribers and penetration – 2009 – 2024
Chart 3 – Growth in the number of superfast broadband connections – 2011 – 2019
Chart 4 – Increase in the number of superfast broadband connections (>100Mb/s) by platform – 2011 – 2019
Chart 5 – Change in broadband penetration by technology – 2007 – 2018
Chart 6 – Change in the number of superfast cable broadband subscriptions – 2011 – 2019
Chart 7 – Decline in the number of DSL subscribers – 2009 – 2019
Chart 8 – Drop in the number of Orange’s DSL subscriptions – 2005 – 2019
Chart 9 – Development of Free’s broadband revenue – 2006 – 2019
Chart 10 – Growth in the number of Free’s broadband subscriber base – 2005 – 2019
Chart 11 – Growth in the number of SFR’s broadband subscriber base, by type – 2013 – 2019
Chart 12 – Increase in the number of SFR broadband homes passed – 2009 – 2019
Chart 13 – Increase in the number of FttP equipped and passed buildings – 2008 – 2019
Chart 14 – Increase in the number of FttP subscribers – 2011 – 2019
Chart 15 – Increase in the number of Orange’s fibre subscribers and connected premises– 2006 – 2019
Chart 16 – Increase in the number of Free’s fibre subscribers – 2015 – 2019
Chart 17 – Increase in the number of Bouygues Telecom’s broadband and fibre subscribers – 2010 – 2019

List of Exhibits

Exhibit 1 – Principal FttP and FttC (FttLA) deployments

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Number of pages 62

Status Current

Last updated 25 Oct 2019
Update History

Analyst: Henry Lancaster

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France - Fixed Broadband Market - Statistics and Analyses

Synopsis

Key developments:

Companies mentioned in this report:

Introduction and statistical overview

Hybrid Fibre Coax (HFC) networks

Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) networks

Fibre-to-the-Premises (FttP) networks

Other fixed broadband services

Appendix – Historic data

Related reports