31-01-2024

2023 review and 2024 outlook : ielo's fibre network continues to expand

Against an uncertain macroeconomic backdrop, ielo, France's neutral Very High-Speed (VHS) infrastructure operator, continues to demonstrate strong, sustainable, and controlled growth. In 2023, billed revenue exceeded €43 million, representing an average annual growth rate of more than 33% over four years. Working alongside its operator partners, ielo is increasingly establishing itself as a key enabler of digital transformation for businesses and local communities across France.

2023: Growth on Every Front

Over the past four years, ielo has maintained a consistent annual growth rate of 33%, positioning the company among the most dynamic players in the digital infrastructure sector.

These results have been driven by the continued trust of 400 active operator customers, joined during 2023 by 60 new national and international organisations.

As a neutral infrastructure operator, ielo’s business model is based on designing, deploying, and operating its own nationwide network. Building this infrastructure has required significant investment and the ongoing commitment of ielo’s teams.

Since 2020, ielo has:

  • Increased the size of its metropolitan fibre network by a factor of ten
  • Built its own nationwide long-haul fibre network

Designed as homogeneous, high-capacity infrastructures, these networks deliver end-to-end service quality while providing a strong competitive advantage for operator partners.

At the start of 2024, ielo operates:

  • 16,000 km of metropolitan fibre network, bringing infrastructure closer to end-customer locations
  • 11,000 km of long-haul fibre network, transporting data across France for partners and their customers

 

2023: The Year of Industrialisation

To improve operational performance and support the acceleration of deployments, ielo focused throughout 2023 on industrialising its processes, particularly around service delivery and backbone network densification.

With a workforce of 350 employees, including 250 field technicians, ielo significantly increased its operational capacity to meet the demands of its continued growth.

The year also saw the creation of a dedicated Customer Support Team, further strengthening ielo’s commitment to delivering high-quality service throughout the customer lifecycle.

Another significant milestone in 2023 was the integration of the Quantic Telecom team into ielo. Following the decision to discontinue its direct digital services business and adopt ielo’s pure wholesale model, the Rouen-based team strengthened the operator’s presence across Normandy.

 

Looking Ahead to 2024: Higher Speeds and FTTO Service Guarantees

Unlike traditional fibre networks built on shared, residential-oriented architectures (FTTH), ielo has chosen to design and deploy its own fibre infrastructure based on a Dedicated Optical Local Loop (BLOD) architecture.

As a result, ielo’s FTTO offering is built on infrastructure that is fully controlled end-to-end and dedicated exclusively to businesses and public sector organisations.

This approach provides the performance, reliability, and service guarantees required for critical digital operations.

In 2023:

  • More than two-thirds of orders submitted by ielo’s partners included at least 100 Mbps of guaranteed bandwidth
  • In 2022, this represented only one-third of orders
  • Every connection was delivered with a 4-hour Service Restoration Guarantee (SLA)

These figures demonstrate the growing need for higher bandwidth and stronger service guarantees among businesses.

To anticipate this evolution, ielo extended its FTTO offering in 2023 by standardising access to guaranteed speeds of up to 10 Gbps nationwide.

The first quarter of 2024 will mark the launch of a new FTTO product range.

This next stage in ielo’s development is designed to further democratise FTTO connectivity across France while delivering a technology specifically tailored to the performance and reliability requirements of modern businesses.

The initiative is made possible by a neutral infrastructure platform that is entirely designed, operated, and managed by ielo’s teams.

"Our results are the direct outcome of our teams' commitment and the trust placed in us by our partners. They reflect our promise: to remain the only neutral infrastructure operator dedicated to sustainably driving the enterprise telecommunications market in France. Today, as an independent company not affiliated with any French telecom group, we continue to honour that commitment by working alongside our partners to accelerate the digital transformation of businesses across the country. With the historic transition away from the copper network now underway, we intend to continue expanding our service portfolio to help our partners create even more opportunities for businesses to migrate to fibre."
Arthur Fernandez CEO, ielo

About ielo

ielo is an independent French telecom infrastructure operator specialising in Very High-Speed fibre-optic networks, delivering high-quality connectivity solutions to businesses and public sector organisations.

Present in more than 3,300 municipalities, ielo operates a network dedicated to the enterprise customers of its operator partners while also supporting local authorities in deploying their own infrastructure to support public service missions.

ielo’s latest-generation infrastructure is designed, deployed, and maintained entirely in-house to ensure the highest levels of availability.

In 2023, the company employed 350 people, including 250 technicians working from 12 Regional Technical Centres, enabling consistent service quality and operational excellence across the country.

 

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