Environment: "The real challenge is to extend the lifespan of smartphones" (Laure de La Raudière, Arcep)

Technos & Media
Telecoms

In an interview with La Tribune, Laure de La Raudière, President of Arcep, stresses that we must develop the reconditioning and repair of mobile terminals to reduce the digital carbon footprint. According to her, tackling the subsidization of telephones by operators would have little impact in terms of environmental issues. Pierre Manière

5 mins

This Monday, Arcep, the telecoms policeman, lifted the veil on a long-awaited study. The government had asked the telecoms regulator to work on the impact of smartphone distribution practices on their renewal. In reality, a particularly sensitive issue has been worrying the executive and all players in the sector for months: the practice of subsidizing telephones, which consists of an operator selling a terminal coupled with a long-term mobile subscription, it customers to change phones more often? And this, even if the latter still has good years ahead of him?

Many telecom observers and specialists thought so. Free, which is leading a revolt against the subsidized smartphones of its rivals Orange, SFR and Bouygues Telecom, has been convinced of this for a long time. In recent months, Xavier Niel, its leader, has multiplied criticism of a practice he considers anti-ecological. His argument: when a customer reaches the end of the two years of his subsidized offer, the operator will encourage him to change terminal in order to rehire him for two additional years. In its study, Arcep sweeps away this idea. The institution specifies that “the seniority of all smartphones active on the networks would be, on average, 32 months against 29 months for subsidized smartphones”. In our columns, Laure de La Raudière, the president of Arcep, adds: "It is not because an idea, which was recently mentioned by the Citizens' Climate Convention, is intuitive that it is true. . »

Laure de La Raudière also believes that tackling the distribution methods of mobile terminals, which weigh 10.5% of the digital carbon footprint, would amount to being in the wrong fight. She recalls in particular that “subsidization represents only 20% of smartphone sales in France”. These statements will hardly please Xavier Niel. The founder of Free obviously expected Arcep to contradict him. Last Monday, he accused the institution of defending the interests of "an oligopoly", namely that of its competitors Orange, SFR and Bouygues Telecom. Laure de La Raudière, whose bias Xavier Niel had already questioned when he was appointed head of the regulator, refuses to comment. "We looked at the figures without any preconceptions," she says. Unlike Sébastien Soriano, his predecessor, who did not hesitate to respond tit-au-tac to operators' pikes, Laure de La Raudière prefers, publicly at least, to ignore it.

Be that as it may, the "real challenge, from an environmental point of view, is to extend the lifespan and use of terminals", continues Laure de La Raudière, who pleads for the development of the reconditioning and repair sectors. These booming sectors can, according to her, give a second wind to many smartphones. "Many languish in drawers because the battery does not last long enough, or lack the memory to download the latest version of the operating system," she recalls.

Difficult trade-offs for the government

It is now up to the government to promote, if it wishes, the reconditioning and repair sectors. But these political trade-offs are not simple. Recently, the executive has in particular drawn the ire of professionals of refurbished smartphones concerning a taxation of their devices under the private copying levy (RCP). Established in 1985, it targets all terminals allowing the copying of cultural works. It constitutes an important manna for the world of culture, which does everything to preserve it. After electrical parliamentary debates, the RCP was extended to second-hand terminals. To the chagrin of players in the sector, such as Back Market, who see it as a brake on market development.

Environment:

Laure de La Raudière also returned to the development of an "environmental barometer" of digital players. This will enable the institution to monitor the evolution of the carbon footprint of industrialists in the sector. To build this new regulatory tool, Arcep should soon benefit, within the framework of a law, from new powers aimed at collecting data from telecom operators and equipment manufacturers, but also, and above all, from manufacturers of terminals such as Apple, Samsung or Huawei. But will these actors, powerful and foreign, play the game? The president of Arcep is confident. “With the new law, we should benefit from a power of sanction if certain actors refuse to transmit data to us”, she warns.

Laure de La Raudière also asserts that these major players have every interest in collaborating, if only to preserve their brand image. "Nobody would understand that Apple, which promised to reach zero carbon in 2030, before everyone else, refuses to participate in our work on the environmental footprint of digital technology", underlines the leader of Arcep. Which is determined, if necessary, to make the powder speak.

Pierre Manière

5 mins

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Comments8 Andruide wrote on 07/17/2021 at 02:51 PM ReportSamsung, in a spirit of ecology, said that its terminals (smartphones, tablets, etc.) will benefit from 4 years of updates Android operating system update. It's a big step, isn't it? Well, 4 years is not much (in terms of human and technological time, that's another... Samsung, in a spirit of ecology, said that its terminals (smartphones, tablets, etc.) will benefit from 4 years of updates to the Android operating system. It's a big step, isn't it? Well, 4 years isn't much (in terms of human and technological time, it's something else, each evolution drives out the previous one that has become "has been"). new products would give the impression of a lack of creativity or dynamism, but maintaining all that costs personnel. Maintaining too long means fewer purchases, what's the point of bothering if people keep their old stuff?