the essential
There are no more dead zones! Since this summer, the deployment of optical fiber has been completed in the department, outside the Toulouse metropolitan area. With 325,000 homes eligible for this new technology which replaces the old ADSL. At the same time, the copper extinction plan will start…
The digital transformation of the Haute-Garonne department is complete. Exit the old ADSL technology to connect to the internet and therefore to the world. From the Pyrenees to the Toulouse plain, optical fiber has woven its web across our entire territory. A deployment that has just been completed this summer, as announced by Laurent Averseng, the director of Fibre 31, the mixed economy company created to manage the public service delegation of the network, outside the 37 municipalities of the Toulouse metropolitan area and the city of Muret. “Today, the department is 100% fibered,” he confirms. This means that 325,000 homes are eligible for fiber, of which 185,000 are already subscribed, representing a penetration rate of 57%.
The planned end of ADSL and… copper
In the long term, users will no longer have a choice, since Orange, the historic telephone operator, will launch its copper extinction plan, which will begin next January in three municipalities: Venerque, La Salvetat-de-Lauragais and the very small Albiac. “The operation is planned for 5 years, until 2030, specifies Laurent Averseng, 22 municipalities will be concerned in 2026, then 53 the following year with a ramp-up”. In order not to surprise users still connected to the “classic” cable, the planned end of copper will be done in two stages. First commercially with the obligation for operators to no longer offer subscriptions on this medium, before the final shut-off of the tap set for January 2026. “At that point, no one will be able to use ADSL anymore,” warns the director of Fibre 31, emphasizing the virtues of the new, more efficient technology that will bring broadband to everyone, in total fairness. Which was far from being the case before. Subscribers at the end of the telephone line will appreciate it.
The battle of the operators
“Fiber is not sensitive to electromagnetic interference and it consumes five times less electricity,” adds Laurent Averseng. Not to mention that copper thieves, a metal that is still precious, will no longer be able to strike, since the glass used in optical fiber is worthless. Now that the entire departmental network is complete, it is then the different telephone operators, Orange, Bouygues, SFR, Free, who are responsible for the final connection depending on the commercial choice of the user. Competition is sometimes fierce. “These four groups are our customers, we make our network available to them, up to a distribution box that can supply 3 to 12 homes, specifies Laurent Averseng. The operators then pay Fibre 31 a flat rate of around ten euros for each connection and ultimately serve their subscriber. It’s up to you to see which is the most reliable…
