What happened
On 21 October France's Autorité de la concurrence imposed interim measures on Orange over its fibre-to-the-home (FttH) rollout in Mayotte. The complaints came from Réunicable and its subsidiary Mayotte THD, and from the département-région of Mayotte.
The complaint
In January 2025 the département-région awarded Mayotte THD a public service delegation to build an FttH network across the whole island. From March 2025 Orange began its own FttH rollout in five of Mayotte's 17 municipalities, a decision the complainants said it took unilaterally.
The Autorité found that Orange's conduct was likely to amount to an abuse of a dominant position and to cause serious and immediate harm. It said the conduct was likely to cause a significant loss of revenue for Mayotte THD, putting at risk the financial stability of the delegation and the public funding behind the network. It also said consumers in the least densely populated areas could be left without fibre for a long time.
What Orange must do
- Suspend its fibre rollout in Mayotte and stop commercial canvassing of operators in the wholesale fibre-access market in areas it has not yet covered.
- Give the telecoms regulator ARCEP and the département-région an overview of its fibre rollout so far, and a report on the condition of its copper network.
- Give the concession holder access, when needed, to the civil engineering infrastructure Orange controls in Mayotte.
The suspension could be lifted or revised if the public network suffers abnormal delays, if a co-rollout agreement covering all of Mayotte is reached, or if the delegation is adjusted to include Orange's existing rollout.
Next steps
The interim measures stay in place while the Autorité investigates the case in full.
Why it matters financially
The Autorité acted to protect the business case and public funding of a publicly backed fibre network. This shows that duplicate builds by incumbents in areas served by subsidised networks can be treated as abuse of dominance. For Orange, fibre investment in Mayotte is on hold, and a full ruling against it could lead to fines. The decision did not include any financial figures.