And it is seriously starting to worry some of our industry

The least that can be said is that the Continent does not commits to the speed of light in fiber! While overseas, to the United States, investments underway since 2003 with the optical type FTTx networks deployment-understand Fiber To The "x", the variable that can refer to the node (Node or Neighborhood) connection, the building (Building), the Subscriber (Premise), home (Home), the user (User), or even cooking (Kitchen) as like to say some... The two largest U.S. operators, Verizon (from successive integrations of Bell Atlantic, GTE, Nynex, and more recently MCI) and AT & T (born of the merger of SBC, Ameritech and this year the AT & T history and Bellsouth), realizes that capitalize on these new technologies networks very high-speed capable of carrying Terabits per second - 1 "TB/s" equivalent to 1 000 GB/s or Mbit/s 1 million! The advantage of this new generation of infrastructure lies in the very high speed - up to more than 100 Mbps to each Subscriber's desktop - they are either three to five times the flow on copper with ADSL networks.

The time is therefore more transatlantic to the projects and experiments, as in Europe, but to access mass marketing very high speed to the Internet, including VoIP, TV high definition or even video on demand, all presented with electronic guides of multimedia programs. And it is seriously starting to worry some of our industry. "At the time where Europe procrastinates on the regulation of very high flow, the United States is committed to bottom", developed Serge Tchuruk warned in a recent interview in les Echos see Les Echos of August 30, 2006. P - dg Alcatel was referring to the trouble of Deutsche Telekom with the European Commission, hostile to the initial will of the German regulator (BNetzA) do not require the operator to open its new network fiber-copper (EUR 3 billion of investment in FTTN VDSL by 2007) to its competitors.

But the French OEM - supplier of AT & T in the United States in optical equipment and one of the world leaders in the fibre - is not only deplore the consequences of the controversy caused in Europe by the emerging market that is access very high throughput offered by fiber to the Subscriber. "In the United States, the FCC did not wished regulate new optical fibre networks." This decision also allowed the actors to invest heavily all by allowing competitors, in commercial offers, to borrow these new infrastructures ", held to recall Jacques Champeaux, Executive Director in charge of the regulation of the Group France Telecom on Lesechos.fr in early September."

While the France is still not clear with this question (which led the historic operator run by Didier Lombard to postpone the national deployment of FTTH "in 2008 at the earliest"), and despite the wish expressed in January of Jacques Chirac - the State was still shareholder of France Telecom at 33 - to "allow all telecommunications operators wishing to develop a fibre optic network throughout the country"the United States invest. "In Asia, North America and Europe, many access networks broadband are deployed, but some countries are in advance to the other." This difference is explained by the variety of regulatory regimes, the intervention of public authorities to adopt policies to access broadband different, the level of competition and technological choices ", has itself stressed Gabrielle Gauthey, Member of the College of Arcep, during a symposium on"true broadband"organized last may by the manufacturer of cables and fibres Janus."

While the twenty-five ask always how to regulate or not such optical infrastructure, the fifty United States can deploy calmly. "The FCC has decided that the new fibre access built by American historical operators should be offered to 'fair and reasonable' prices rather than be offered at prices oriented costs as in the unbundling of the copper pair." This decision is also based on the fact that in the United States alternative operators have access to the case of the incumbent operator on very advantageous terms ", explains in" les echos "Winston Maxwell, associate lawyer at Hogan & Hartson."

Result: the more U.S. operators are encouraged since 2004 to invest (the work of civil engineering representing more than 60 of the total cost) with the prospect of a Return On Investment (ROI) with the opening of their new network to competition. "Our goal this year is to surpass 6 million of sites connected fibre in 16 of the 28 States where we are present, against 2 million connections achieved last year." This is done at an average cost of approximately $ 1,200 by optical 2005 taking and, from the end of the year, this cost will be reduced around 715 dollars declining tariffs on optical equipment ", tells the Echos Bob Varettoni, spokesman for Verizon in the United States." With these some 7 billion investment this year, and since 2004, the American giant will not stop there in the distribution of its yarn Internet/TV bouquet but he always refused to reveal the expenditures envisaged in the FTTP that some analysts estimate of 20 to 40 billion dollars over 10-15 years! "By 2010, however said the spokesman, we will have exceeded the 18 millions of optical connections, 60 of the 30 million subscribers that we expect in 28 States". Nothing that to reach the 3.1 million of the city of New York home, Verizon plans to spend $ 3 billion (90 of the homes of Staten Island will be serviced by the end of this year). Although the operator had absorbed MCI earlier this year, this has no impact on its optical investments insofar as the ex-Worldcom has not deployed public FTTP.

With respect to the new AT & T, it is not left with a total of $ 4.6 billion of investment which should be achieved in two years - mainly through the provision of SBC, but out of Bellsouth in fusion. The project LightSpeed deployment is well underway in a less binding than in DSL environment. : "Recent regulatory decisions in the United States, such as the removal of the duties applied to unbundled network elements, are promoting investment in broadband." Although we have a backbone of optical fibre in Europe; We remain concentrated in the United States is from FTTN or FTTP the ", explains Michael Coe, American spokesman for the new group AT & t. result, he plans to achieve"nearly 19 million users by end of 2008", this was to the connecting nodes (FTTN) extended by the VDSL on the pair of copper, or to the premises (FTTP). Our deployment should be done more quickly and less costly than alternative FTTP retained by Verizon ", he says." According to our calculations, optical decision supplemented if necessary by the VDSL would be in effect within 250 dollars for AT & T.

The current merger with Bellsouth, which has made significant investments in the deployment of fiber closer to housing, it should be profit. "Our strategy video, we are also developing more high-definition (HD) television services that cable operators to offer on their network hybrid fiber-coax (HFC) or the pair of copper access providers", still indicates Michael Coe. Other us operators are also launched in the very high optical throughput as operator Qwest Communications, pioneer of the "FTTN VDSL" in Arizona, Colorado and Nebraska with his Choice TV & Online offer generalized in the 14 States where it is present. In early September, he completed for $ 107 million cash redemption of OnFiber Communications - specialized in the construction of fibre optic networks.

Locally advanced of FTTx projects across the Atlantic - rich approximately 200 in activity or networks being deployed in the United States, with the help of many local communities - and are already recipe as the shows another pioneer of fiber, the operator Oxford Networks serving Maine. Stéphane Lelux, President of the firm of consultants Tactis, "more than 60 of households connected to FTTH in the United States are projects funded by public actors (municipalities or local electricity companies and utilities owned communities)". No wonder that, in this favourable context, across the Atlantic, the United States already represent 11 (or nearly 1.1 million) of the total world FTTx subscribers at end of 2005, according to Idate Institute (see chart), against 8 (i.e. 0.800 million) for Europe. And if nothing changes in Europe, particularly in terms of regulatory uncertainty, this proportion of 19 for the United States (5.7 million) and only 17 (5.1 million) in Europe at end of 2010...