France undertakes public private partnership to build out fiber telecom infrastructure

France launches 20 bln euro fibre broadband rollout | Reuters: Feb 20

Three tranches of more than 6 billion euros each will fund the planned network rollout, Hollande said. One will come from network operators, one from a mix of operators and local government and the last from state and local-government money.

Local governments' outlay will be funded using tax-free, regulated deposits gathered by state bank Caisse des Depots.

By 2017, the end of President Hollande's first term, 50 percent of the country will be covered under the plan.

This clear implication here is telecom infrastructure build needs cannot be adequately funded purely by an investor-owned telecom market.