Ultra-fast internet without superfluous, here’s how Bouygues Telecom rethinks fiber

Last January, during launch of its Bbox Wi-Fi 7Benoît Torlotting, Managing Director of Bouygues Telecom, explained to us how this new box gave body to the new strategy of his group, CAP 2030, which aims to focus on his core business, the Internet connection, “To put the fixed at the heart of growth”by offering the best flows, technologies and services possible.

Two months earlier, he had not escaped us, that Bouygues Telecom had launched b & you pure fiberits first fiber internet access offer, without TV or fixed telephony. The Internet and nothing but the Internet, or as the FAI slogan says: “The super flow, without the superfluous”.
It was therefore a question of time before these two ways meet, that these two planets are aligned … Today, Bouygues Telecom announces that its B & You Pure Fiber offer is now based on the most efficient and most recent Bouygues Telecom Internet box, its Wi-Fi 7 Bbox.

B & you pure fiber: the same better

The B & You Pure Fiber offer therefore goes to Wi-Fi 7, thanks to the new Bouygues Telecom box. However, the flows remain non -symmetrical, and not symmetrical as is the case in the Bbox Ultym offer. The operator always announces uptresses of 1 Gbit/s and descendants of 8 Gbit/s. The Wi-Fi 7 part is however untouched compared to the high-end offer. The offer remains tri-band both on the box side and on the Wi-Fi repeater side, available as an option. The previous box, which will no longer be offered with this offer, already promised 8 Gbit/s descending and 1 Gbit/s Amount, but with Wi-Fi 6th only.
In other words, the flows of and to the Internet remain very high, but the coverage and the wireless local flows are improved. The price does not change and remains set at € 23.99 per month, without obligation. New customers will be billed at € 48 in case fees, while current customers will have to pay € 49 … of migration costs for the transition to the new box.

Meet a need, needs

A “Single Play” offer in the land of triple play offers, it may seem to go backwards. But not for Bruno Duarte, consumer director of Bouygues Telecom, with whom we were able to maintain ourselves upstream of this new announcement.

For Bruno Duarte, a single play offer has not only meaning, but meets several expectations. The first imposed itself on the one who did his tour of France by taking up his duties: “Some customers said to me, I don’t need this service, why would I pay for that?”he recalls, speaking of telephony or television via the box. “There is therefore a pressure effect on purchasing power”he admits.
But the battle for purchasing power alone does not justify this offer, far from it. “There is another element that is very important to us, which is the maturity of the French market”he notes.

A maturity in demand, first of all, which results in a slowdown in growth: “If you look at the arcep observatory, from memory, I believe that in the fourth quarter (2024, editor’s note)growth has slowed 40 % compared to the previous year. “explains Bruno Duarte.
In addition, maturity is also manifested in the expression of new expectations: “The first is a requirement on the quality of the connection. (…) Now our customers tell us:” No, it’s unacceptable not to have a connection as perfect as possible. “.”.

“The second is really a segmentation element”he continues. “In all ripe markets, we see that the same offer can no longer satisfy everyone”sheds light on the consumer director of Bouygues Telecom. “This was a bit like triple-play, but it doesn’t work anymore. Now, at this stage of maturity, we really have needs, segments that have very specific expectations.”
Who is the target of the b & you pure fiber offer? “These are the autonomous tech”replies Bruno Duarte. “A very male, rather young population, we are in the under 35s, and rather urban, very urban”he specifies.

A craze for the single play which “does not mean the end of the triple play”takes the trouble to specify the representative of Bouygues Telecom. It is a complementary offer, designed to meet another requirement built on the will of an optimal service: the best flow rate and fiber connection.

B & You Pure Fiber: A separate offer?

_{Force of habit or difference in positioning on the market, not all operators have a fiber offer without TV decoder or telephony offer. In any case, this table shows the offers that approach it most in each competitor of Bouygues Telecom.}

Towards a new era?

That’s why Bruno Duarte believes “Really to this pure fiber offer” which carries its brand and has already encountered “A great success”to the point of significantly contributing to the good result of the end of the 2024 exercise, he explains to us.

It is in these eyes, the manifestation of “The next step to which we try to bring the market”. A market where quality of service is growing, becomes central. Bouygues Telecom’s consumer director puts in perspective the extent of the efforts to be made, of what it implies in his eyes, over two decisions that should not have been taken lightly.
The first concerns the Bouygues Telecom stopped the marketing of DSL offers. “To my knowledge, we are the first, and the only operators in France” To have done it, he advances. “While as a consumer director, I can tell you that it costs me.”. For what ? Because the quality of service is not sufficient, in addition to going backwards from the meaning of history – the end of the copper network at the base of the ADSL is scheduled for 2030.
The second decision is to withdraw Wi-Fi 5 from the offers in the catalog, because “Wi-Fi 5 is a technology that is 10 years old, which has been thought out and launched for the DSL. It is no longer suitable for the expectations of our customers.”

The fiber and its flows mark a turning point, they are the technological basis of a new market. A market for which Bouygues Telecom is preparing, as is its competitors. Bruno Duarte thus recalls that his group covers 90 % of the areas densely populated in XGSPON fiber and is fast progressing in the less dense areas, as explained last January the director general of Bouygues Telecom.
A credo: fiber and quality of service. “We think that is what creates value over time. (…) We come back to customer expectations, and the quality of the premium connection. This is what we are trying to do. We are convinced that over time, that’s what will pay.”

Currently, Bouygues Telecom has five million fixed subscribers, including four million fiber. The operator also accumulates the awards on the quality of service of its networks or its customer relations … The CAP is put on 2030, time will tell us if this vision prevails …