ARCEP will differentiate between new ‘fibre zones’ with different types of price controls in the high-quality access market.
A review in line with the previous one: During 2020, the French regulator ARCEP has reviewed the wholesale fixed access markets. In the business segment, the regulator is maintaining the approach of the previous review, which led to increased competition and improved availability of FTTH products. Orange is proposed as the operator with SMP, and will be subject to price controls on its copper and fibre products in non-competitive areas of the country.
ARCEP defines new ‘fibre zones’: On 19 October 2020, ARCEP published the scope of the ‘fibre zones’ in which it is dividing the country (ZF1 and ZF2), with a view to adopting different pricing approaches in each. The new zones will come into force from 1 January 2021, if the authority adopts the draft review of Market 4 it is finalising. In line with the previous market review, ZF1 is where competition has fully developed, and at least half of the wholesale fibre access lines available has been activated by an alternative operator.
A light-touch price control regime: In ZF1, no price controls are mandated. ARCEP proposes to include 173 municipalities in ZF1, compared to 153 in 2020, meaning competition has developed in a wider area of the country. The remaining municipalities would form part of ZF2, in which Orange would be subject to the obligation to charge ‘non-excessive tariffs’, and to a tariff replicability test. This would be applied in two different ways depending on whether competition is developing (ZF2-A zones), or it is still a distant prospect (ZF2-B zones).
