France has a new public company, Alcatel Submarine Networks (ASN), the submarine telecom cable production and installation subsidiary of Finnish equipment manufacturer Nokia. Antoine Armand, the French economy minister, and Marc Ferracci, the French industry minister, will sign the contract to acquire 80% of the capital at the company's historic plant in Calais (Pas-de-Calais) on the morning of November 5. Negotiations between the French state and Nokia were announced on June 27.
The transaction is worth around €100 million, but the state must also take on ASN's €250 million debt. Nokia will retain 20% of the capital but the Agence des Participations de l'Etat (APE) will be able to buy this share in the future, under undisclosed conditions. This acquisition is not subject to the 2025 budget bill. The sum will be drawn from the French government's financial holdings special allocation account.
The Finnish group, which inherited ASN in 2015 when it acquired Alcatel-Lucent, had been pondering the company's future for two years. The French government did not want to see it pass into the wrong hands. "ASN is a strategic company," stated the industry ministry.
Incredibly, 99% of the world's internet traffic passes through fiber optic cables deployed at the bottom of seas and oceans, historically by telecom operators and, in recent years, by digital giants like Meta (Facebook) or Google. More than 480 are currently in service. With its coastline, France is a nerve center of the global network. Four transatlantic cables linking Europe to the US arrive on the French coast. In Marseille, 18 lines arrive from or depart to Asia and Africa.
ASN is the only European manufacturer of fiber optic submarine telecom cables, and holds around a third of this global market, alongside the American SubCom and the Japanese NEC. It has manufactured all the cables linking Africa, including the 2Africa, the latest colossal project undertaken in 2020 by a consortium led by Meta. This 45,000-kilometer network, in partial service since June, interconnects Europe, Asia and the African continent, reaching the coasts of 33 countries.
In addition to its Calais plant, the former Nokia subsidiary has a fleet of seven vessels, two of which are used for cable repair and maintenance. In this field, France can also count on the seven vessels of Orange Marine, the telecom operator's specialized subsidiary.
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