The French incumbent telecommunications operator, France Telecom, has today issued a press release in which it confirms that it will prepare a voluntary commercial offer for wholesale access to its ducts by the end of 2007.

Details have not been published, but it is clear that:

a) France Telecom has made a specific proposal to the regulatory authority ARCEP, in the context of ARCEP's public consultation on very high bandwidth networks, in particular FttH.

b) France Telecom envisages either a reciprocal commitment from other operators, or, more likely, a form of symmetric regulation that would mandate non-discriminatory duct access on all owners of infrastructure that is suitable for the deployment of optical fibre.

T-REGS Notes:

France Telecom already offers, for more than a decade, duct access on a case-by-case basis. Access has been granted, for example, in circumstances where municipalities refused to grant rights-of-way to new operators, and the municipality instructed these operators and France Telecom to come to an agreement for the utilisation of France Telecom ducts.

It remains to be seen to which extent a legal/regulatory basis can be identified or established to impose wide-ranging duct access on telecommunications operators that do not have significant market power on a relevant market, and on entities that are not providers of electronic communications networks.

If today's announcement is to result in an effective offer, engineering rules will have to be developed, to enable large-scale sharing of ducts and associated manholes, handholes, cabinets, optical distribution frames, etc. and related procedures for installation and maintenance.

The full text of France Telecom's press release can be accessed by clicking on the links hereafter: French version ; English version.