The price of most internet packages will likely rise in the coming weeks. The increase promises to be very significant.
While the French are already preparing for the rise in electricity prices, announced a few days ago, another piece of bad news is likely to make people cringe. The telecoms operator Orange has just announced that the cost of using its infrastructure will soar in the coming weeks. The increase promises to be significant: the cost will very soon increase by 67 to 72%! The tariffs had already increased by 40% between 2021 and 2022 and Orange estimates that they will rise further by 22% to 28% in 2025. Enough to make the situation untenable for many operators and therefore an inevitable increase in prices for the end consumer …
Concretely, Orange allows other large operators (SFR, Bouygues Telecom, Free), as well as smaller companies, to use its cables and ducts inherited from the former France Télécom, to pass their fiber optic lines. All in exchange for remuneration. And it is she who will fly away in the first trimester. A date has even been set by Orange for the increase in its prices: March 1. Its customers must therefore urgently find solutions to compensate for this additional cost which will weigh on their budget.
Orange’s three main customers, SFR, Bouygues Telecom and Free, are primarily concerned and could well be tempted or forced to very quickly pass on this increase to their fiber subscribers. Operators have already indicated to Le Monde that they are forced to “urgently review” their annual budget; one of them even estimates the additional cost at nearly 3 million euros for his company.
The director of Arcep (Regulatory Authority for Electronic Communications, Posts and Press Distribution), for her part, recalled that these increases had been planned for a long time and linked to the general deployment of optical fiber on French territory. . It also recalls that “price control is exercised by Arcep, and the validated prices will be known on February 1 of each year”.
However, one question remains unanswered: if Orange increases the price of use of its network for other operators, will the same be true for its own company? Users subscribed to Orange or Sosh could well be the only winners in the deal and not suffer an increase.
