Arcep delivers a progress report on its roadmap six months after launch

Paris, 30 June 2016

In January of this year, Arcep delivered the conclusions of its strategic review in the form of a roadmap and 12 priorities going forward. Six months later, to coincide with the publication of its annual report for 2015, Arcep provided a progress report on each of these priority areas, during an after work event hosted by Cap Digital on 30 June 2016.

This event was preceded in the morning by a financial analysts conference, devoted to the topic: "Telconomics - How to face regulatory challenges in the digital age?" which provided Arcep with an opportunity to outline its strategy with respect to investments, and to give its perspective on several ongoing regulatory action plans.

Conclusions on 2015 and priorities for 2016

In front of members of the press and digital industry stakeholders, Arcep provided an overview of the core issues addressed in 2015, presented in the form of the four pillars of the regulator's actions - i.e. investing in infrastructures, connected cities and regions, the open internet, a pro-innovation prism - along with a progress report on each of the 12 priority areas of focus for 2016/2017.

Four priorities to emerge from amongst these 12 central areas of focus were unveiled for the next six months:

• Create the first partnerships that will make it possible to enhance to network coverage and quality data, thanks to crowdsourcing;

• Engage in a dialogue with the sector on a geographical adjustment of copper pair pricing, and on the terms and methods for awarding the status of "fibre area";

• Publish more detailed mobile coverage maps, using open data formats;

• Adopt a doctrine and a recommendation to accelerate the pace of SMEs' migration to fibre, and galvanise competition.

In its annual report for 2015, Arcep provides details on the work carried out in 2015, along with key figures for the two sectors it regulates, and traces the history of the market's evolution over time.

Data-driven regulation: a new approach for the regulator

Special attention was given to a new form of intervention that was identified by the strategic review: data-driven regulation. To clarify the concept, examples of concrete applications were given along with demonstrations of the tools involved.

Acting as a complement to the classic instruments available to the regulator, data-driven regulation consists of using the power of information to steer the market in the right direction. In practice, this means:

• Empowering users thanks to accurate and personalised information, whether coming from users themselves (crowdsourcing), collected by Arcep from operators and made available as open data, or supplied directly by Arcep, e.g. through mobile network quality of service testing campaigns;

• Calling on mobile users to share any problems they encounter (reporting platform), marking a shift from an approach based on customer complaints to one of civic action .

One of the first concrete manifestations of this approach is the launch of a call for partners that will run from 30 June to 30 September 2016, inviting all parties interested in working with Arcep to submit their ideas.

A new organisation chart to reflect new priorities

Arcep will also be adjusting how its departments are structured, to redeploy its resources to the new responsibilities assigned to it by Parliament: implementing the "Open internet" regulation, providing support for public initiative networks, increased oversight of mobile coverage.

Building on Arcep's monitoring mandates and desire for openness, outside parties surrounding Board members during forward-looking workshops, as well as the first areas of work identified, were also presented.