Iliad S A : Bretagne Très Haut Débit – Free joins Brittany’s public initiative network as a commercial operator

Press release

December 16, 2020

Bretagne Très Haut Débit - Free joins Brittany's public initiative

network as a commercial operator

The Bretagne Très Haut Débit project currently under way in Brittany is aimed at bringing ultra-fast fiber to 1.4 million homes, businesses and public venues through a Public Initiative Network (PIN) in areas not covered by privately-funded rollouts. In other words, 60% of Brittany's population and 90% of its surface area. To carry out this project, Brittany's regional and local authorities have tasked Mégalis Bretagne with building the public network, and THD Bretagne - an Orange subsidiary - with operating and commercializing it. Following on from Orange in late 2016, Bouygues Telecom in 2018 and SFR in 2019, it is now Free's turn to join the network.

Today, Loïg Chesnais-Girard, President of Mégalis Bretagne, Bénédicte Javelot, Executive Director of Orange Wholesale France and representing THD Bretagne, and Maxime Lombardini, Vice-Chairman of iliad (the parent company of Free) signed the official agreement marking Free's arrival as a commercial operator on Brittany's public fiber network. The agreement is also a joint pledge by Mégalis Bretagne and Free to futureproof the network's quality for the next forty years.

In the areas covered by the Bretagne Très Haut Débit project, eligible premises will soon be able to sign up for a Free Fiber plan. The network's commercial launch will take place in 2021 and work has already begun to integrate Free into each of the region's optical nodes (ONs). In the meantime, people covered by the network can go to https://www.free.fr/freebox/fibre-optique/to see how the rollout is progressing and request updates by completing an online form.

In the coming years, Free will commercialize all of the Fiber sockets deployed by the network, representing 1.4 million premises. This is in addition to Free's Fiber offering already available in Brittany's very densely populated areas, such as Rennes, and in areas with a medium population density whose fiber rollouts are privately funded ("AMII areas").

Commenting on the agreement, Loïg Chesnais-Girard said, "Free's arrival rounds out the offering already available on Brittany's public fiber network. It's good news for the people of Brittany, who are keenly awaiting ultra-fast broadband. And it also reflects the network's appeal, as we now have all of France's big four retail ISPs."

Maxime Lombardini said, "We're delighted that we'll soon be able to propose Free Fiber to the people of Brittany, who have been waiting eagerly for this moment, and that we'll be able to give them even better connectivity, which is so necessary in these current times. The agreement we've signed today fits seamlessly with our rollout strategy of extending our Fiber network, which now has more than 18 million connectible sockets across France. It is also fully in line with our objective of proposing the same offers at the same price throughout the country, even in sparsely populated areas."

Bénédicte Javelot said, "Through its subsidiary, THD Bretagne, Orange has been successfully commercializing Brittany's Public Initiative Network with France's ISPs since mid-October 2016. Following on from Orange, Bouygues Telecom and SFR, Free's arrival marks a new phase in this success story and proves that Brittany's regional and local authorities have got their strategy right in extending ultra-fast fiber coverage within Brittany."

Mégalis Bretagne: Quentin Pichard - [phone] [e-mail]-

Orange: Christophe Hervé - [phone] [e-mail]

Free: Isabelle Audap - [phone]- [e-mail]

About Free

Free - an iliad Group subsidiary - is the inventor of the Freebox, the first multiservice box on ADSL. Free is behind numerous innovations in the Broadband and Ultra-Fast Broadband access segment. Since January 2012, Free has brought mobile phone usage within everyone's reach with straightforward offerings at very attractive prices. As at September 30, 2020, Free had over 20 million subscribers in France (6.7 million Broadband and Ultra-Fast Broadband subscribers and 13.5 million mobile subscribers). On May 29, 2018, the Group launched its mobile network in Italy under the iliad brand, becoming the country's fourth mobile operator, and had over 6.8 million subscribers at September 30, 2020.