Launched in July 2019 following the signing of the regional very high speed market between the Réunion Region and Orange Concessions, optical fiber deployment work continues. The new regional majority continues to support this flagship project which will ultimately make it possible to achieve a fully fiberized Reunion Island..
Réunion THD was created in August 2018 by the Region to deploy and operate the public fiber optic network in the most difficult to access municipalities, where private operators have not committed. The objective : a 100% connected Reunion so that all Reunion Islanders can benefit from Very High Speed to reduce the digital divide. This authority is also in charge of the digital development of the territory through, among other things, the operation of the WiRun network.. An operation co-financed by the European Union, supported by the State as part of the France Très Haut Débit plan.
“The Very High Speed plan (THD) launched at the beginning of 2013 aims to cover the entire territory with very high speed in 2022 thanks to a public initiative network (RIP). It is an ambition shared with municipalities and communities. In the meeting, one in six people do not use the Internet, at a time when more and more administrative procedures are necessarily dematerialized. For us, it is therefore a question of supporting the development of infrastructures, the digital opening up of the territory and also to best support the people of Reunion in this daily digital transition”, declares Normane Omarjee, president of Réunion THD and third vice-president of the Réunion Region.
Removing white areas : a priority
88,1% of Reunion Islanders are connected to the Internet. More than 50% are connected via a computer. Eight out of ten Reunion Internet users have already purchased on the Internet (source Médiamétrie, February 2021). Furthermore, according to INSEE, the population of the territory would exceed one million inhabitants by 2023, if recent demographic trends are confirmed. In 2019, the Reunion digital sector represented 1,5 billion euros in turnover, 5,000 jobs, 476 companies, + 29% growth since 2014 (source Digital Réunion, 2020). The subject is all the more important as Reunion is an island, far from the rest of the world, and that its relief accentuates the gaps and extends the distances. This is why the Law for the Economic Development of Overseas Territories (LODEOM) recognizes the digital sector as a strategic area of activity and one of the main growth drivers of the Reunion economy. And it is therefore in this context that the action was oriented around three strategic priorities : the development of very high speed infrastructures, improving skills and training for digital professions, the development of services and uses as well as support for companies in their digital transformation. The regional authority launched the regional Very High Speed plan (THD) in order to meet the first priority, with the objective of not leaving any white area suffering on the island. The Réunion THD network is open to all Internet service providers to ensure competition as in the rest of the island. : Canal Box, Orange, SFR, Zeop.
Seven municipalities concerned
THD meeting confided, following a competitive bidding procedure, construction work on the public initiative network (RIP), to the Orange Concessions group, Sogetrel and Circet. The intervention focuses on two areas. A firm perimeter with action concentrated on the six municipalities not targeted by private operators : The Oars, Salazie, Cilaos, Between Two, Saint-Philippe, Sainte-Rose. A conditional perimeter concerning the municipalities in which the private operator withdraws. So, THD meeting will take place in the heights of Saint-Louis : Les Makes, Bellevue and Petit Serré, so that the public initiative complements private intervention to supply 2,170 homes and professional premises. Work began at the end of 2019 in the six municipalities that signed the agreement. They are continuing intensively in this year 2022 and will continue during the year 2023 in the areas of the optional tranche. Or 24,000 homes to be made eligible for Very High Speed, 819 km of infrastructure and a total cost of 35 million euros. The program is nearing completion. As a reminder, fin 2021, Réunion was the second most fiber-rich region on the national territory behind Île-de-France.
