In many cities in France, it will soon no longer be possible to subscribe to a new ADSL offer, even if the line is still technically active. Here are the dates of commercial and technical closures.
Some French cities will be cut off from the Internet via ADSL, the technology which passes through the famous “copper network”. This network, set up more than fifty years ago, allowed millions of homes to connect but it quickly became obsolete, slow, costly to maintain and less and less adapted to modern uses. This is why the historic operator Orange, owner of these lines, has initiated their gradual closure, supervised by the government and the Telecoms Regulatory Authority (ARCEP).
Instead of ADSL, optical fiber is becoming the standard throughout France. It supports Internet, television and telephony without the limitations of old technology. The transition is taking place according to a progressive schedule between 2026 and 2030, city by city. Two dates are particularly important: January 31, 2026, when the sale of new ADSL lines will be stopped everywhere in France, and the technical closure dates, which vary depending on the municipalities and mark the moment when the ADSL service is actually cut off. For example, certain batches of municipalities have already seen ADSL cut at the start of 2025, and other batches will follow throughout 2026 and until 2030.
Among the towns concerned, there are small and medium-sized towns where ADSL access has already ceased or is scheduled to begin the technical closure between January 2026 and 2027. If you want to know precisely if your town is affected and on what date, here is the map corresponding to the commercial copper closure from 2026:
To anticipate this change, French people still connected to ADSL must first check the eligibility of their home for fiber and contact their operator to plan the migration. This often involves having a fiber socket installed in your home if one does not already exist. It is advisable not to wait until the last minute, as installation times can lengthen as technical closures approach. Consequently, “customers in areas not connected to fiber will have to switch to alternative solutions such as 4G or 5G box, in order to maintain stable Internet access during the transition,” an advisor from Bouygues Telecom told us.
Finally, some advice to get through this period without interruption: start your migration steps now, compare fiber offers from different operators, and remember to back up your important data before any technical intervention. If fiber is not yet available in your home, find out about alternative solutions (4G/5G box or satellite) which can help you out in the meantime. This is also the time to check that your equipment (modem, router, telephones, consoles) is compatible with a high-speed connection to take full advantage of it once fiber is installed.
