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France reaches 94.9% fiber coverage in 2026

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Re: France reaches 94.9% fiber coverage in 2026

#71

Post by epistasis »

alerighi wrote: post #44
nsbk wrote: post #16

Spain is at 96.79% (June 2025), up from 94.79% a year before. See [0] I think France and Spain are the best of the big European countries regarding coverage, but also adoption: If we look at the adoption ranking globally, Spain sits fourth at 90%, behind the UAE, China and South Korea and ahead of France at 83.6%. Very few European countries convert coverage into subscriptions that efficiently, and I think it's drive…

In Italy we are at 78% of addresses covered. That doesn't mean automatically that one gets fiber. First at all, if someone doesn't need to download heavy stuff and has a good coverage a 5G SIM with unlimited data (something you can get for 10/15 euros a month) is cheaper than a fiber connection (that starts from 25 euros). Second a lot of people has still FTTC even if it has FTTH, mostly because FTTC offers a speed t…

> a 5G SIM with unlimited data (something you can get for 10/15 euros a month) is cheaper than a fiber connection (that starts from 25 euros).

These sorts of prices are unheard of in the US, so incredibly low.

Something has gone deeply wrong with US telecommunications.

Re: France reaches 94.9% fiber coverage in 2026

#72

Post by stefanfisk »

epistasis wrote: post #56
Night_Thastus wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Reminder that US taxpayer money was handed to the ISPs by the truckload on the promise of fiber. They took that infrastructure money and ran with it.

Tell me more about this. I've yet to find a good summary! It happens here in California with PG&E with fire prevention money and infrastructure money; the executives declare victory early having spent a fraction of the allocated funds and then give themselves bonuses with the rest, for being such great managers. Then we get gigantic town-destroying wildfires that destroy people's lives.

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/the-book-of-broken-promis_b_5...

Re: France reaches 94.9% fiber coverage in 2026

#73

Post by hocuspocus »

alerighi wrote: post #44
nsbk wrote: post #16

Spain is at 96.79% (June 2025), up from 94.79% a year before. See [0] I think France and Spain are the best of the big European countries regarding coverage, but also adoption: If we look at the adoption ranking globally, Spain sits fourth at 90%, behind the UAE, China and South Korea and ahead of France at 83.6%. Very few European countries convert coverage into subscriptions that efficiently, and I think it's drive…

In Italy we are at 78% of addresses covered. That doesn't mean automatically that one gets fiber. First at all, if someone doesn't need to download heavy stuff and has a good coverage a 5G SIM with unlimited data (something you can get for 10/15 euros a month) is cheaper than a fiber connection (that starts from 25 euros). Second a lot of people has still FTTC even if it has FTTH, mostly because FTTC offers a speed t…

The main issue with copper comes from the active infrastructure rather than the physical lines.

I work at an ISP that gets DSLAM equipment from Huawei, we run one of the few G.fast VDSL deployments in the world using this particular hardware. Huawei has stopped manufacturing this product line (the Swiss market is a rounding error ;), which will force us to fully migrate some neighborhoods, only for backup inventory.

Germany being 15 years late, I assume you can still buy similar hardware from AVM though.

Re: France reaches 94.9% fiber coverage in 2026

#74

Post by cassepipe »

harel wrote: post #27

Is that fiber to the property or fiber to the cabinet? In the UK I get FTTC which means the last bit from the cabinet down the road to my house is copper wires. My speed is bottlenecked by that. New builds and flats get services for the building giving them full fiber. My fiber is only as fast as my copper wire to the cabinet allows

But that's already so much faster than ADSL. I just got "Fiber to Home" last year and frankly the only difference I could see is when I download a big file with a torrent. I am convinced that direct downloads and web pages were already limited by other stuff that the bandwidth.

Also that's kind of irrelevant because it is free/cheap to get the ISP to pay for bringing fiber into the home (at least if you are in an urbanized area ? But if not, the paragraph above still applies)

Re: France reaches 94.9% fiber coverage in 2026

#75

Post by jaylaal »

zokier wrote: post #61

why is there such clear empty region in the middle? some regional governance thing? also why is Brittany so much worse than rest of the country, despite having relatively high pop density

"Toute la Gaule est occupée par les Romains. Toute ? Non! Un village peuplé d’irréductibles Gaulois résiste encore et toujours à l’envahisseur."

Re: France reaches 94.9% fiber coverage in 2026

#76

Post by richwater »

epistasis wrote: post #71
alerighi wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In Italy we are at 78% of addresses covered. That doesn't mean automatically that one gets fiber. First at all, if someone doesn't need to download heavy stuff and has a good coverage a 5G SIM with unlimited data (something you can get for 10/15 euros a month) is cheaper than a fiber connection (that starts from 25 euros). Second a lot of people has still FTTC even if it has FTTH, mostly because FTTC offers a speed t…

> a 5G SIM with unlimited data (something you can get for 10/15 euros a month) is cheaper than a fiber connection (that starts from 25 euros). These sorts of prices are unheard of in the US, so incredibly low. Something has gone deeply wrong with US telecommunications.

State sanctioned and encouraged anti trust behavior will do that

Re: France reaches 94.9% fiber coverage in 2026

#77

Post by betaby »

gramie wrote: post #40
betaby wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

`high-speed internet` is not necessary a fiber though. As recent as 2025 Videotron had been receiving subsidies to build cable network in a newly constructed neighborhood.

You are right, there is cable as well. I'm in an area that does not have cable, so our internet is all fibre. Still, cable can get up to 1Gbps, and probably higher, so it's a distinction without a difference. The push to make sure that 100% of people have access to high-speed internet is the most important thing.

> cable can get up to 1Gbps, and probably higher, so it's a distinction without a difference.

Heavily disagree. There is a distinction with a big difference. Currently deployed by Videotron cable solution is 940Mbps down and only 50Mbps up. That's an abysmal upload speed.

Of course Videotron is aware that cable is dead end. (even though they still building it on subsidies). That's why Videotron is offering to switch to Bell's fiber in some locations.

Re: France reaches 94.9% fiber coverage in 2026

#78

Post by yieldcrv »

bitmasher9 wrote: post #6

Over the last 10 years I’ve moved 5 times. Each time having a fiber connection with at least symmetrical gigabit has been a hard requirement. Looking forward I’m considering moving again for very fast networking where I can begin to stream videos in 4k 60fps to small groups from my home, as well as offering a semi-permanent home for mid sized files (500mg-50gb). The ability to download/upload large files without worr…

How do you go about learning this about a building or neighborhood while planning a move?

Its something I usually find out later

Re: France reaches 94.9% fiber coverage in 2026

#79

Post by cassepipe »

utopiah wrote: post #23

Yep... was on the countryside for the Summer in places so small they didn't even have a bakery, which in France matters. What did they have though? Optic fiber, high bandwidth, low latency, reliable and for a very low price. Honestly I think ADSL was already enough for most people, I mean non professionals, but now I think France has the infrastructure for a good enough Internet for the next few decades. I can't fath…

The "sad" thing is that it is generally not advantageous for people to have both a phone data plan and an internet box plan if the latter is not shared so a lot of people have a fiber connection on their wall but still use their phone as hotspot since bigger data plan It's not the end of the world but it feels like a wasted effort. I don't know what the solution is.
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