On receipt of a first intent to order together with a refundable deposit, France Télécom issues a quote for the construction of a room in standard dimensions as set out below.

This quote is returned 15 days after receipt of the order to the various operators that forwarded an intent to order on the site by indicating the number of operators interested. Once the quote is accepted by one of the operators, France Télécom starts the work and delivers within four (4) months. On delivery, the price for setting up the room oriented towards the corresponding costs is divided by the number of operators who had accepted the order, depending on the number of bays delivered to each operator.

If, at the time of delivery of the room, the amount of requests cannot be met, the escalation procedure set out above is implemented under the authority of ART.

A system has to be designed whereby operators that subsequently enter the room are to refund the operators already in the room.

The dimensions of the room to be built are calculated as follows:

• In large towns, in general, the room to be built is evaluated on the basis of the addressable market and the size of the distribution frame at around 2m2 for 1,000 pairs. Taking a distribution frame of 50,000 pairs and assuming that the new entrants will take 20% of this market, i.e. 10,000 pairs, since a DSLAM can host around 600 pairs, this leads to a estimate of 17 DSLAMs, i.e. around 20 bays. By taking a large security coefficient, a 100m2 room should be sufficient. However, in some specific cases in high-potential areas such as business districts (e.g. La Défense in Paris), France Télécom could offer larger rooms depending on availability. For small distribution frames, the room should not, however, be smaller than 30 m2.
• In small and medium-sized towns and rural areas, orders are processed as they come in, after a preliminary collection of operators’ forecasts, especially in urban areas.