ielo: 2019-2024, five years of organic growth and innovation supporting operators, data centres, and public sector organisations

A French telecom success story that embodies the opening of the enterprise telecom market, ielo has become a national infrastructure operator in less than a decade.

In 2016, following several years of collaboration, ielo and Liazo, then active in hosting, IP Transit, and fibre-optic infrastructure, merged to create a new independent infrastructure operator. This marked the beginning of ielo’s network expansion across several major metropolitan areas, reaching 1,500 km of network infrastructure by the end of 2019.

In July 2020, the founding partners, supported by ielo employees, decided to accelerate the company’s development and move to the next stage of growth by opening its capital to DIF Capital Partners, securing the funding required to build a new nationwide fibre infrastructure network.

Just three years later, in 2023, ielo had developed a national network capable of competing with the industry’s largest players. By the end of 2024, the company had increased its metropolitan fibre footprint tenfold, reaching 17,000 km, while also building a national long-haul network spanning 11,000 km.

Customer Trust at the Heart of Growth

Over the past five years, ielo has maintained an average annual growth rate of 28%, reinforcing its position as one of the most dynamic players in the digital infrastructure sector despite an uncertain macroeconomic environment.

These strong results have been driven by the continued trust of 450 active operator customers, joined in 2024 by 50 new national and international organisations.

Among these new customers are companies such as Criteo and Radio France, for whom ielo provided connectivity services as part of the Olympic Games infrastructure projects.

High-Quality Fibre for Every Business

A significant portion of ielo’s 2024 growth was driven by its FTTO business, supported by the launch of FTTO Burst, a new growth driver for the company.

Having already differentiated itself in 2023 by offering FTTO services up to 10 Gbps anywhere in France to support the most demanding enterprise applications, ielo expanded its FTTO portfolio to make high-quality fibre connectivity more accessible to a broader range of businesses.

With FTTO Burst, organisations benefit from connectivity tailored to both their usage patterns and operational requirements:

• Guaranteed bandwidth with the ability to burst above committed capacity during peak demand periods
• Service restoration commitments aligned with the criticality of business operations
• A more accessible pricing model

At the same time, ielo continued to industrialise its FTTO operations through the implementation of new processes that reduced deployment lead times from 12 weeks to 8 weeks as of September 2024.

Ambitious Projects Supporting Partners’ Growth

Growth has also been fuelled by large-scale Dark Fibre infrastructure projects, both at metropolitan and long-haul levels.

Among the most notable projects are:

• The deployment of the Paris-Metz-Luxembourg optical route on behalf of LuxNetwork
• The interconnection of Equinix campuses across the Paris region

These projects demonstrate ielo’s ability to meet the requirements of major organisations by delivering new, high-capacity and highly secure network routes.

Strategic Financing to Support the Next Five Years of Growth

Finally, 2024 marked a key milestone with the completion of a €208 million bank financing round.

This major investment will enable ielo to continue developing the infrastructure foundations required to support the accelerating digital transformation of businesses and territories alongside its operator partners.

As part of this strategy, the company plans to further extend its network footprint and open additional cities across France from the first half of 2025 onward.