Arcep promises liberté, égalité, and ultrafast connectivitéArcep promises liberté, égalité, and ultrafast connectivité

Perhaps that's a slight exaggeration, but its three-pillar strategy is undeniably evocative of what makes France so...French.

It has pledged to create the kind of regulatory framework that will deliver digital infrastructure "everywhere, for everyone, for a long time to come."

Making this dream a reality requires meeting nine objectives that range from completing the transition to very high-speed broadband for all; reducing the environmental impact of digital technology; and promoting competition in cloud, AI and digital markets.

Sustainability and cloud competition were among the new responsibilities that were given to Arcep last year along with press distribution.

"This is therefore a good time to give a new impetus, to give Arcep an ambitious course, and to give you visibility on our roadmap for the years to come," said a speech by Arcep president Laure de La Raudière.

First though, it's worth taking stock of where France sits today when it comes to high-speed connectivity.

According to Arcep's most recent figures, fibre broadband subscriptions reached 23.7 million by the end of Q3, up by 3 million year-on-year, while the number of those connected via copper and DSL-based tech fell to less than 7 million.

On the mobile side, 5G connections surged by 10 million to reach 22.1 million.

As for its financial health, fixed-line service revenue grew by 3 percent to €4.4 billion, while mobile service revenue – including M2M – was broadly flat at €3.8 billion.

France is faring quite well then, which perhaps explains why Arcep is emphasising connectivity done the right way, rather than for its own sake.

"The digital that we will focus on building does not lock up closed ecosystems but emancipates individuals; does not limit developers in their work platforms, in access to their customers, but allows them to share their innovations with all; [and] does not exhaust our planet's resources day after day, but preserves them," La Raudière said.

With that in mind, she has pledged to promote the development of fair and effective competition in digital markets through the appropriate regulation of cloud services. In line with the EU's Digital Markets Act, Arcep will also seek to extend the responsibility of maintaining the principles of the open Internet to smartphone makers, platform operators, and cloud and generative AI (GenAI) companies.

The practicalities still need fleshing out, but Arcep is essentially putting big tech on notice, potentially setting the stage for an acrimonious showdown with a group of individuals that – thanks to their proximity to the new Trump administration – are feeling even more full of their own self importance than usual.

As for the environment, Arcep will ramp up its data collection activities, using them as a foundation for future action at a European level to improve not just energy efficiency, but also product lifecycle management.

"The use of efficient video codecs; the limitation of auto play or infinite scrolling; the maintenance of operating software throughout the lifetime of the terminals; or the development of more sober artificial intelligences seem to us to be good practices to be defended in future European works," said La Raudière.

"We all have work to do," she said. "This is a great opportunity to act together for the benefit of our citizens and our businesses."

As fun as it is to have a wry smile about some of the wording of Arcep's rhetoric, it is refreshingly human-centric at a time when so much of the discussion lately about European telecoms has been about competitiveness with other regions and cold, hard cash.