This photo that you see there was taken in one of the 21,000 NRAs in France (telephone exchange) which supply the copper network and allow subscribers and certain subscribers to have Internet with ADSL. As you can see, it's a tangle of copper cables. And soon, it will no longer be of any use and will go into a recycling channel.
Because Orange has decided to dismantle its copper network, considered extremely expensive and energy-intensive, but also obsolete while almost 90% of households are eligible for optical fiber.
To tell the truth, the work to close the copper network and therefore the end of ADSL has already begun. A project which takes place in two stages, with first a commercial closure and then a technical closure.
The end of ADSL is already scheduled in more than 10,000 municipalities, as you can see on our map of the end of ADSL.
The commercial closure of ADSL is already happening in more than 800 municipalities
This is the first step leading to the end of the copper network and ADSL: commercial closure. Concretely, this means that households affected by the commercial closure can no longer subscribe to an internet offer with ADSL. This means that in the event of a new subscription, in the event of a change of offer, or in the event of a move, they are forced to subscribe to a fiber offer.
Because of course, the closure of the copper network goes hand in hand with the deployment of optical fiber. And before Orange can carry out a commercial closure in a municipality, the deployment of the FttH network must be completed in said municipality.
In two months, 954,000 premises located in 829 different municipalities (lot 2) and 58 different departments will therefore no longer be able to take out an internet subscription with ADSL from the end of January 2025. On the other hand, homes connected to ADSL will continue to benefit services included in their offer for another year, when the second stage of the construction site, known as technical closure, takes place.
Already technical closing time in more than 150 municipalities
In exactly 164 municipalities (lot 1), the end of ADSL is already a reality. Indeed, 256,700 homes or premises have already been unable to subscribe to an internet offer with ADSL for almost a year. And in two months, on January 31, 2025, they will simply no longer be able to connect to the Internet with ADSL.
This is called the technical closure phase. And this means that the copper network will be cut and the affected NRAs will be deactivated. Concretely, this means that homes will no longer have Internet if they have not yet switched to fiber. it's that simple.
It is already the end of ADSL in nearly 1000 municipalities. Find out if yours is affected.
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Nearly 10 million premises soon to be affected by the end of ADSL
For the moment, only the municipalities in lots 1 and 2 are directly affected by the end of ADSL, in the sense that the closure of the copper network is already a reality. But Orange has already made public the list of the 2,145 municipalities in lot 3 (2.5 million premises) and the 6,894 municipalities in lot 4 (7 million premises). Municipalities in which the technical closure of the copper network is scheduled for January 31, 2027 and January 31, 2028.
On the other hand, the more than 30 million remaining premises still do not know whether the end of ADSL will occur in 2028, 2029 or 2030, the date on which work on the end of ADSL should normally be completed.
What are the alternatives to ADSL?
The first alternative that comes to mind is of course optical fiber. Because the idea is that each household affected by the end of ADSL must be able to subscribe to a fiber offer. But everyone knows that 100% fiber is impossible. Because in some places, the fiber connection is too complicated or too expensive.
In this case, other solutions exist: 4G/5G boxes, which provide very high speed thanks to 4G and 5G mobile networks, or even satellite internet offers.
