Fibercop, a map of the relationship between infrastructure and ecosystems

Fibre runs under cities, through suburbs, past countryside and protected areas. But knowing where the network passes today also means understanding what relationship it has with the territory. Hence Fibercop's first biodiversity assessment, produced with the scientific support of Invento Innovation Lab and published on the occasion of World Environment Day.

The study cross-references the group's digital infrastructure - some 10,000 exchanges, over 200,000 cabinets and millions of network elements - with the main areas of environmental protection, starting with Natura 2000 sites. The result is a map of coexistence: the telecommunications network is mainly located in urbanised contexts, but is often in the vicinity of sensitive ecosystems and areas of high nature value.

The point is not only reputational. For an infrastructure essential to the country's digital development, knowing how it interacts with soil, flora and fauna becomes a lever for industrial planning. It serves to reduce impacts, guide interventions, strengthen resilience against environmental risks and improve dialogue with institutions and territories.

Compared to other infrastructures, telecommunications generally have less impact on biodiversity. But it is precisely the capillarity of the network that requires a qualitative leap in management: it is not enough to bring connectivity, it is necessary to do so by measuring more and more precisely where and how the infrastructure fits into the natural balance. For Fibercop, the assessment thus becomes the first step in a strategy that tries to hold together two capitals of the country: the digital and the environmental.