The project is part of a 30-year public service delegation contract:

-Some €400 million invested, mainly by private investment funds;

-Almost 216,000 FTTH connectors manufactured;

-73,000 hours of insertion.

All the broadband service operators are present on this network to bring their best offers to the region’s private individuals and professionals. More than 40% of households have already made the switch from copper to optical fibre. Now everyone, everywhere, can benefit from the network’s operation and digital uses.

THE PROJECT’S KEY FIGURES

  • 66 optical connection nodes
  • 476 local connection points
  • 17,000 km of fibre optic cable
  • 216,000 connectors
  • More than 80,000 customers hooked up by 1 October 2022

2016-2022: 6 YEARS TO BUILD A VERY HIGH-SPEED NETWORK

In 2016, the Syndicat Mixte Sarthe Numérique mixed digital association chose Axione to design and build a very high-speed fibre optic network, comprising 82,000 connectors and 202 local connection points, in the scope of a works contract.

In 2019, Sartel THD won a 30-year public service delegation contract for the network’s deployment in the remainder of the department (outside the AMII* area).

By the end of 2022, the deployment was complete. We did it!

SARTEL THD: AN EXEMPLARY PUBLIC-PRIVATE PARTNERSHIP

In order to provide an equitable service to all the territories concerned, the Sarthe Department and all its inter-district municipalities joined forces via a syndicat mixte (mixed association) to provide an FTTH public service infrastructure in areas not covered by private operators.

On 9 January, 2019, at the end of a competitive dialogue procedure, the Sarthe Numérique mixed association chose the consortium composed of Axione Infrastructures, Axione, and Bouygues Energies & Services to be the shareholders of its Sartel THD provider.  For a 30-year term, Sartel THD is tasked with financing, designing, building, marketing and operating the Sarthe department’s FTTH public network.

A NETWORK PROVIDING DIGITAL USES FOR ALL

For local companies, access to broadband is, more than ever, a major asset in providing sustainable solutions to their needs, even more so with the advent of telecommuting. For the general public, whether for education, health, shopping, culture or social ties, digitalisation is perceived not only as an essential tool, but also as an innovation lever.

With Sartel THD, the Sarthe Departmental Council and all the region’s inter-district municipalities have committed themselves to an ambitious public policy promoting digital infrastructures and uses. The achievement of 100% fibre marks a first milestone in this ambition: to be an innovative territory in command of its infrastructure so that it can face, thanks to even more assets, major economic, social, societal and environmental challenges.

New objectives have already been defined, with the construction of a local data centre to serve local communities in 2023, and the deployment of a very low-speed LoRa network to support new uses of the Internet of Things throughout the department.

The Sarthe department’s distinction was to choose to immediately deploy optical fibre to the smallest municipalities, i.e. the places where the ADSL network’s coverage was largely insufficient for the needs of inhabitants. Thanks to this visionary choice, all those who live in the Sarthe department are now fibre-connectable. We did it!

Dominique Le Mèner, Chairman of the Sarthe department and of Sarthe Numérique

Having reached our first objective, new challenges await us. First of all, the development of the Internet of Things via a low-speed LoRa network and its multiple uses for the benefit of the department’s communities and citizens, starting in mid-2023. At the same time, the construction of a local public data centre to serve the Sarthe department’s economic players, due to open at the end of 2023.

Eric Jammaron, Chairman of Sartel THD and Axione

Our teams installed 216,000 fibre optic connectors over the course of six years. Two months ahead of schedule, we are proud to have contributed to the Sarthe region’s digital development. Having been awarded the TopSite Innovation label, this project also attests to our environmental and social commitments.

Rémi Carrière, Head of Sartel THD

*AMII: “Appel à Manifestations d’Intention d’Investissement” (Call for expressions of interest). AMMI area: part of the region in which a private operator has expressed its interest in the deployment of an FTTH network (concerns the following towns: Allonnes, Arçonnay, Arnage, Champfleur, Coulaines, La Chapelle-Saint-Aubin, Le Mans, Mulsanne, Rouillon, Sablé-sur-Sarthe, Saint Paterne-Le-Chevain, Sargé-lès-le-Mans, Yvré-l’Evêque).