The change in technology will be effective on January 31, 2025 in 162 municipalities.
Today, the Internet is an integral part of our lives and the majority of French households use it on a daily basis to work, have fun, communicate with loved ones or even manage everyday tasks (shopping, administrative procedures, etc.). It’s simple, surfing the web has become a reflex for many, so much so that we could hardly do without it. But soon, thousands of French people will have to say goodbye to the copper network, which was deployed in the 1970s first for landline telephones, then for Internet access via ADSL in particular.
This change comes following the deployment in the territory of optical fiber and new Very High Speed technologies, which will be implemented gradually until 2030, with a next stage which will begin on January 31, 2025. On this date, a hundred municipalities will no longer be able “access the internet via ADSL or VDSL, television and landline telephone”, explains the telephone operator Orange, owner of the copper network, on its site. In total, the technical closure of the copper network is approaching for 162 municipalities located throughout the territory, in the Grand Est, in Brittany, in the south of France, in Martinique and in Guyana. To find out if you are affected, you can search for the name of your municipality on the site www.economie.gouv.fr/treshautdebit.
This operation will impact you in one way or another, especially if you have not taken the necessary steps. Indeed, as explained on the Arcep website responsible for supervising this project, “if you have not migrated to another solution at the time of the technical shutdown, your connection will be cut.” You must therefore, from now on, anticipate by contacting your Internet provider and change your subscription if you still have an ADSL or VDSL offer. “It is best not to wait until the last moment to organize your change of technology”also advises theArcep.
After this stage, the second phase of the copper network closure schedule will extend over several years, from 2026 to 2030. “Each year, a greater number of municipalities will be permanently closed to copper”details Orange before adding: “This closure of Orange’s historic network does not mean the end of fixed telephone and internet services. On the contrary, these services continue to operate on more modern and efficient networks, and in particular on fiber, the deployment of which continues on the territory.”