The Principality has made its next step into the digital transition as the technical installations for super high-speed fibre connectivity has been completed after three years of work.
Fibre optic access has arrived in Monaco. After three years of laying 210 kilometres of new network cables, Monaco Telecom, the nation’s telecommunications operator, is ready to connect the entire country to high-speed digital internet access.
They will gradually connect every home to the network, replacing the old copper wire connection with the fibre optic one, giving better, more efficient service to all residents and businesses. The ADSL service now in play will switch to an incredible 10 giga-bites per second, which is lightning fast in terms of connectivity.
“With the arrival of fibre, the Principality is increasing its capacity to accelerate the digital transition by offering a more stable network that is 10 times faster in terms of connectivity and Wi-Fi,” said Frédéric Genta, Monaco’s Chief Digital Officer. “This new stage in technology serves three levels of users: residents, of course, but also companies who are faced with the new demands of teleworking, and finally the country, which will benefit from a great asset that will enhance its attractiveness.”
To start, a few hundred households will be connected. Then, the whole of Monaco will have this new service in 2022, according to Monaco Telecom CEO Martin Pérronet.
“The horizontal deployment in the networks is finalised. The vertical deployment is done according to the authorisations of the trustees, in each building. We are today at a point of 62% of eligible apartments. By the end of the year, 85% of households will be eligible. It is a deployment that will go very quickly so that 100% of households have access to fibre in 2022,” he said.
The new fibre network will mean optimised WiFi with less spotty service, which is a common problem especially with older buildings where load-bearing walls block networks or a badly placed box impedes service.
“The most important thing today is to generalise quality WiFi networks in each of the apartments,” said Péronnet
Getting to this point was not easy. Only buildings built after 2017 were pre-fitted to accommodate fibre optic, so all the older buildings installations involved a slow, steady process of pulling the fibre through the twists and turns of older buildings duct work. It was tedious and time consuming work but is now completed, allowing a new chapter to begin.
“We are conscious that we are moving through a decisive stage in Monaco’s digital life,” said Monaco Telecom’s CEO. “Digital technology is increasingly at the centre of all of our lives, and fibre will be the primary network for this for at least the next 20 years… We are not simply launching a network, we are launching a new experience, that we hope will be of very high quality and among the most innovative.”
 
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