RATP will develop and operate the fiber network of the Grand Paris Express
Solutions Ville, a new RATP subsidiary known as telecoms, has won a call for tenders worth 500 million euros for the development of a fiber optic network along the 200 kilometers of the Grand Paris Express.
Solutions Ville, a subsidiary of RATP designated as “smart cities”, created in January 2021, has just been awarded a contract worth 500 million euros over 25 years. ” operation of the fiber optic infrastructure along the 200 kilometers of the future Grand Paris Express, an automatic metro network which will ultimately serve 68 stations and neighborhoods in Île-de-France. Network which can in particular be leased to telecom operators.
This fiber infrastructure should not only facilitate mobile coverage (3G, 4G and 5G) in the areas served by the project, but also benefit more than 20,000 companies, administrations and research centers. It will also be interconnected with the already existing RATP network (approximately 170,000 km on its historical network). The contract also includes the installation of “mini” data centers in the stations of the future Grand Paris. The first customers will be connected at the end of 2022, says the group.
3 million daily travelers
The creation of Solutions Ville reflects RATP’s diversification objectives beyond transport. The subsidiary brings together the activities of the RATP group in the five sectors: telecommunications, energy, real estate, urban logistics and new mobility. The launch of Solutions Ville also resonates with the implementation in May 2021 of Terraalpha, a subsidiary of SNCF dedicated to operating and marketing a network of approximately 20,000 kilometers of optical fiber.
Managed by the Société du Grand Paris, the Grand Paris Express, the first projects of which should be operational in time for the 2024 Summer Olympics in and around the capital, includes the creation of four new metro lines (15 , 16, 17 and 18). They will serve the near and the great crown. Line 14 must also be extended to Saint-Denis and south to Orly airport. The entire network must be gradually brought into service until 2030, when the Société du Grand Paris expects nearly 3 million daily travelers waiting for very high speed.