MOUNTAIN INNOVATIONS: NOW AND TOMORROW

In the United States, skiing remains elitist. Vail Resorts group was the first to set up a season pass system giving access to some thirty resorts at accessible prices, with discounts on accommodation, restaurants, ski lessons, equipment rental, and more. “There is also the Magic Pass in Switzerland. Small, independently run resorts have come together around a single pass to encourage skiing by young, local people,” says Kaline Osaki. “Val Cenis has adopted dynamic pricing to boost early purchases. Pre-sales and season passes with limited capacities, encouraging advance purchases, are becoming a major trend in France and are being confirmed in Switzerland,” says Laurent Vanat. Is this limited capacity the answer to overcrowded slopes? “A French satisfaction survey reveals that users consider that there are too many people on the slopes. Austria and Switzerland have implemented measures to limit the number of visitors and to manage flow rates. Wouldn’t it be better to return to a more reasonable model?” asks Kaline Osaki.

If there is good in each resort, “none of them are perfect,” says Laurent Vanat. The ideal station does not exist, and not all models are replicable. No two mountains are alike, and that’s fine.

Emmanuelle George is working on an application to the Interreg Alpine Space program with other European alpine countries: Switzerland, Italy, Austria, and Slovenia. This study concerns the transition mountain resorts and tourist territories as they share the same issues. If the project is selected, the mission should start next autumn.

“The idea is to obtain diverse situations, with more or less vulnerable resorts, and different levels of awareness. And in all cases, territories that are willing and ready to embrace the program that brings research and reality in the field together,” indicates the researcher. Once established, this network of European resorts will be able to share experiences, find transposable solutions that can be adapted to each territory and make them available to resort players and public authorities. Emmanuelle George is already carrying out similar work in the Isère department. She intends to articulate both programs so that they feed off each other.

EMMANUELLE GEORGE, RESEARCHER

Our agile and flexible ecosystem is a formidable breeding ground for the innovations that are essential to the mountains of tomorrow. Mobility, digital tools, energy transition, future snow modelling, and even artificial intelligence and connectivity—we are already seeing the premises of new developments and technological strides in the mountain of the future. A bird’s eye view of innovations.

In terms of hybrid motors, the diesel/electric mix has already been running for 10 years. However, in order to meet the challenge of the transition and to accompany ski areas towards the 2037 carbon neutrality target, manufacturers have not stopped innovating. Electric groomers for Nordic and indoor skiing, hydrogen groomers for heavy-duty alpine work: Challenges and schedule.

In its 2021/2022 press kit, Domaine Skiable de France reminds us that 95% of greenhouse gas emissions from ski areas are linked to the use of diesel-powered snow groomers. However, the energy model is about to change with the latest advances in alternative motors. “Our group is not only talking about environmental protection, but is also taking concrete steps [...] by launching CO2-neutral snow groomers,” explains Anton Seeber, president of the HTI Group (Prinoth), in December 2020. At the same time, the German company Kässbohrer is announcing alternative motors ready for mass production at an affordable cost, not to mention HVO (Hydrotreated Vegetable Oil) biofuel which will be delivered with all Pistenbully snow groomers from 2022.

To the left: Prinoth Leitwolf und Husky CleanMotion

Electrical solutions are coming this winter. The Kässbohrer PistenBully 100 E is almost ready to jump into the ring. Fully electric, zero emissions, silent, 200 horsepower, three hours autonomy: The machine is designed for small Nordic areas and indoor ski centers. The electric batteries add some 800kg on board and aim for a full charge within 5 to 6 hours. “We are in the final stages of development with demonstration Model 0 machines starting this winter and sales to follow,” explains Didier Bic, managing director of Kässbohrer ESE. For the Husky eMotion developed by the Italian company Prinoth as part of its Clean Motion project, the schedule is falling into place: “The demonstration machine will be available in winter 2022/2023 and ready for series production in 2023/2024,” confirms Renaud Vezier, Prinoth France’s director of operations. Under the hold, there’s a 270-horsepower electric motor, 190 kWh battery power, and a working autonomy of three hours. Even though the battery adds 700kg

and 0.5m3 of space, “we can see a 20% increase in power and torque compared to the petrol version” continues Renaud Vezier.

As for hydrogen, the horizon is a little further away, even though prototypes are already entering the test phase. This is the case with the Leitwolf H2Motion, with fuel cell drive and electric motor. “Tests have started. The machine has a 400Kw engine, equivalent to 544 horsepower, seven tanks of 67L of high-pressure hydrogen gas, for an autonomy of four hours. A buffer battery provides the connection between the fuel cell and the electric motor. For the rest, we kept the machine’s classic hydraulic system,” explains Prinoth France’s director of operations. In terms of weight, there’s an additional 2 tonnes and an average consumption of 10kg of hydrogen per hour. At Kässbohrer, the hydrogen motor is also in the making. It is based on the operation of the retrofitted PistenBully 600 E+ hybrid model. “We have the advantage of already having the electric motor, now we have to replace the combustion engine with a fuel cell. The current drive train is carried over and the performance remains unchanged” Weighed down by three tonnes, the machine would nevertheless have an autonomy of seven to eight hours.

In any case, using hydrogen is closely linked to the regular advances we are seeing in research. “The hydrogen project needs to be refined; there are several roads to go down and making the right decision is not easy” confirms Didier Bic. Then there is the essential question of supply. The hydrogen station in Chambéry—which is part of the Auvergne RhôneAlpes region’s Zero Emission Valley (ZEV) project including 20 stations—produces 40kg of hydrogen per day, while five Prinoth Leitwolf H2Motion snow groomers would consume 400kg/day. Although the network is gradually being organized in the valleys, the challenge remains sticky in the highlands. “I usually say to my customers: As soon as you have hydrogen in the resort, I’ll have the groomer” adds Didier Bic. To support ski areas interested in the equipment, Kässbohrer has developed an in situ production solution: “A model based on the packaged purchase of three snow groomers and a small production station. Of course, this is a major investment that involves the entire resort, but it would help initiate the energy transition.” explains Didier Bic, managing director of Kässbohrer ESE.

Vocal assistants, personalized recommendations on video platforms: We use AI every day without knowing it. Although

“There are different ways of producing hydrogen as an energy carrier: electrolysis, steam reforming, pyrogasification. To be low-carbon and renewable, hydrogen must be produced by electrolysis using electricity from renewable sources, such as wind and photovoltaic, or from the grid provided it is guaranteed renewable. In summary, the environmental benefit of hydrogen depends on the method of production and not all methods are equal.”

“Upstream renewable electricity generation is still an organisational challenge. Downstream, we also need to guarantee usage by 50% of the ecosystem. We are not interested in showcase hydrogen, where electricity is working. Secondly, in order to be considered mature, a hydrogen project must be integrated into a connected ‘production/ distribution/usage’ ecosystem, which may involve public/private governance that is not always easy. Finally, there is the problem of cost, both vehicle cost and energy cost. Without a large number of players invested in hydrogen, costs will not decrease. This is why public authorities need to commit to the idea, otherwise the sector will lag.”

“In the AURA region, the first foundations for hydrogen use are being laid with the wide-scoped ZEV project. Of the 20 charging stations planned, the one in Chambéry is active, but small. There will be 5 more in 2022. There is a political will to move in this direction. But you have to find uses and have cars. So far, we don’t have enough. It’s slowing down momentum. We can assume that between 2022 and 2026, our region will have our first network. Little by little, usage will develop, and the market will produce new solutions, especially for heavy goods vehicles.”

“I think that the mountain regions will be part of the end of the first network. As soon as the production/distribution/usage chain is set up, it could go fast. The mountain ecosystem is active and innovative. In Alpe d’Huez, La Plagne, Les Ménuires, and Les Deux Alpes, discussions are already underway. The mountain must also take into account the seasonal nature of its operations, as snow groomers do not operate in the summer, in order to properly size projects. But these mountain hubs, which are geographically rather restricted, could be good soil for experimentation.”

artificial intelligence (AI) has not yet reached mountain areas, its applications would nevertheless be numerous. Mathieu Poissard, marketing director of Néovision, a Grenoble-based company specialising in AI, provides an update.

“AI is a computer program that helps automate and solve problems with a high level of algorithmic complexity, including tasks that humans perform with their cognitive functions. Far from being science fiction, AI is part of our daily lives: Augmented reality filters on social networks, GPS and arrival time prediction, etc. In concrete terms, we are talking about data processing, visual, and voice recognition. Smart cities use it for automatic lighting or autonomous vehicles, industry for predictive maintenance, and the health sector for pre-diagnosis. But to use AI, you need data, and that’s where we need to start working in the mountains.”

“Yes, this is the role of chatbots on websites for example. The chatbot should be imagined as a decision tree to answer classic questions with interaction, maintain 24/7 contact with the customer, and facilitate the search for information. If we go further, we can use speech recognition for automatic translations for foreign customers, especially as we can now capture the tone and emotion in a speech. As far as visual recognition is concerned, we already count the number of people on frequented sites and we are able to detect people who have fallen. You can even take a picture instead of asking a question. By mixing chatbot, visual, and voice recognition, we end up with virtual guides, a kind of personal assistant for the entire duration of the stay.”

Completely. Today, customers leave a lot of information on the Internet. With the extraction and semantic analysis of these contents, we have everything we need to know about them. This makes it possible to personalise the offers and launch targeted marketing campaigns. Similarly, by combining data on the weather, dates, duration of stays, and customer preferences, we can achieve highly relevant dynamic pricing.

The analysis of guest flow history will allow us to predict future flows under similar conditions. From there, it is possible to anticipate waiting times, adapt the number of shuttles to be operated, the number of staff or optimize the resort’s energy consumption. The same applies to the ski area. With a good history of snow production, one could identify the optimal parameters for how and how much to produce this year. Then there are obvious applications in predictive maintenance of ski lifts or even safety on the slopes by detecting falls and predicting dangerous behaviour.

The smart, computer-aided artificial vision system that detects defects in guardrail closure when boarding chairlifts, Bluecime, is evolving. Processing images using artificial intelligence is used to make sure the guardrail is closed, and also to count the number of people on a seat, and then to determine whether it is a child or an adult, and finally to analyse their behavior. The cross-referenced data ensures ever greater safety and will soon be capable of providing essential information on the operating cycle of ski lifts (energy optimization and predictive maintenance).

With 57% of greenhouse gas emissions (Source: Les Echos 06/02/2020), transport is ski resorts’ hobbyhorse. During the Etats Généraux de la transition du tourisme de montagne last September, the Secretary of State for Rural Affairs, Joël Giraud, announced €10 million in funding over two years to engineer innovative mountain transport projects.

It’s been featured in the news and projects are abounding. What’s at stake? Decarbonization of regions, better management of tourist flows, and desaturation of road traffic over the last 100 kilometers. In his Mountain Plan II, the president of the AURA region even outbids the government’s Avenir Montagne plan by allocating 20 million euros to support valley lift projects. “For me, this is what the mountain of tomorrow will look like. We want to avoid traffic jams and pollution from cars,” explains Laurent Wauquiez. For the moment, the Les Arcs 1600 electric funicular railway reaches Bourg-Saint-Maurice in 7 minutes. In Oisans, the Eau d’Olle Express now connects the village of Allemond to the resort in Oz-en-Oisans in 8 minutes instead of 20 by road. Other projects are underway,from Magland to Flaine, Bozel to Courchevel, Aime to La Plagne. A new ropaway connecting Grenoble and Chamrousse, connection that will replace the Bastille connection, is also on the cards.

In addition to transporting passengers, valley lifts play a role in goods transport. The Funiflaine, which will be operational from winter 2025, is intended to meet the challenges of clean mountain logistics. The project integrates freight-only platforms in the bottom and top stations, to be used by service professions such as laundry. The aim is to reduce road traffic by 500 trucks per year.

In resorts, horizontal mobility is taking over from vertical mobility, particularly via autonomous electric shuttles. Bertolami, a SME operating from the Drome region in France

and headed by Benjamin Beaudet, initiated the project already tested in Val Thorens. Today’s «Beti» is electric and autonomous, but tomorrow it will run on hydrogen via a fuel cell. “We took advantage of the 2020 lockdowns adapt the agility and autonomy of our shuttles. The hydrogen engine will allow us to run for 20 hours instead of 10 hours on electric power. And the company is taking a step further by designing an autonomous mobility network of delivery robots. “The idea would be to create goods warehouses at the entrance to the resorts and then to ensure intramural deliveries with electric robots capable of carrying a 400kg load,” explains Benjamin Beaudet.

Using robots to help mountain areas transition is one of Jérôme Fauchet’s, CEO of TAUR, concerns. “Robotics will open up new perspectives in the mountains. There are uses to be made for the operators, store and hotel owners, medical professionals, and even emergency services.” In principle, autonomous TAUR robots would deliver heavy loads of up to 500kg—mail, petrol, and energy, foodstuffs, linen for hotels— from a goods hub outside the resort. “We can even imagine deliveries by tracked robot for difficult or snowy terrain.” Made in France, autonomous even in dead zones, and soon to be hydrogen-powered thanks to a partnership with Pragma Industries, the TAUR robot will have an autonomy of 5 to 6 hours. “It is a solution designed to meet the last mile challenge in pedestrian stations. We plan to have a first demonstration of the solution in 2023,” concludes Jérôme Fauchet.

In the pack of innovative soft mobility solutions, we also note the roll-out of cargo bikes. Its usages in the mountains for intra-station or inter-site mobility are twofold: Logistics for the transport of goods and tourism transport people. For Julien Curtet of Neoz Solutions, it is above all a question of removing the cultural and political obstacles to the use of cargo bikes in mountains. “Our electric cargo bikes can carry loads of 25 to 300kg, on gradients of 15 to 20%. A hydrogen engine is being developed to give more torque. They are complementary to other soft mobility solutions.”

The Mobilité Plus solar-powered train is approved for the road and can climb gradients of up to 15%. Its locomotive and carriages can carry up to 75 people. Powered by a lithium battery in the driver’s cabin and solar panels on the roof, it has an autonomy of 150 to 180km. Resorts like Tignes are interested in the solution. Jordan Ré, technical director, explains: “The electric train is part of a range of solutions to decarbonise our mobility. We will conduct a test in 2023 in Les Brévières. The idea is to make village centers as pedestrian as possible by replacing cars with electric trains and by creating parking solutions outside. The experiment could eventually be extended to other areas.”

Railcoop, France’s first cooperative railway company, is working on rolling out intercity lines between major cities outside of the Paris region, including some links in the Alps. Delayed by 6 months, the first Bordeaux/Lyon passenger line should nevertheless be in service by 2023. The following year, the company intends to develop a Thionville/Grenoble axis serving, among others, the Aix-les-Bains, Chambéry, and Montmélian stations. The company has also notified the Transport Regulation Authority of its interest in operating an Annecy/Marseille line via Grenoble and the Southern Alps by 2026 at the latest. “The train is an essential link in the ecological transition. We have more and more members in the Chambéry region, which illustrates a need for reorganisation in the Alps, and perhaps even to launch a local think tank,” explains Ludovic Grandjacques, in charge of Railcoop’s capacity process, adding “Service to the Alpine valleys by night trains is also a subject of interest for Railcoop.”

Launched in 2018, it took Moonbikes two years of R&D to bring its electric snow scooters to market. The technical specifications are: one ski at the front, a caterpillar at the back, lightweight at 87kgs, a propulsion system to reach 42km/h, and 1h30 of autonomy. “It has the manoeuvrability of a bicycle and the power of a small motorbike,” says Nicolas Muron, the founding president. The objective is clear: Revolutionise mobility in the mountains. The device is already operating in a dozen stations and the company has no intention of stopping there. It has just raised 4.5 million euros to reach 5,000 units by 2025 and to expand internationally.

DAT’MOUNTAIN by Dative is an artificial intelligence and monitoring software dedicated to ski area operators. It allows the collection of energy and process data in real time in order to optimize ski area management. In concrete terms, it cross-references energy consumption and production data to intelligently manage resources. It relies on weather and traffic data to predict attendance, optimize operations and reduce waiting times and traffic on the slopes.

UPilot® is a digital training platform for ropeways. It provides learners with interactive e-learning modules and assessment tools. The tool digitizes training courses by mixing your own content with that offered by UPilot® in order to personalize your training experiences. It can be accessed online and uses various technologies—video, web, PDF, quiz materials, and even a 3D gondola simulator.

“Ma station dans ma poche” is an app that digitises resort services: Activities are presented, slope maps, ski passes, webcams, practical information, access and transport options are all available, and more. Other services can be added such as tourist passes or click & collect. Adapted to the specificities of mountain territories, Ma station dans ma poche increases visibility and improves customer relations. A solution that has already been adopted by Montgenèvre Resort.

Ensuring the safety of mountain professionals, searching for people in distress, geo-positioning machines & vehicles, securing sensitive areas, tracking groups, connecting equipment: These are all managed by the API-K Pro beacon. Its new interface is even more ergonomic and intuitive for operators.

The 100% digital ski pass on Android and Apple smartphones. The SKIDATA «Mobile Flow» application (downloadable from Google Play and Apple Store) authorizes access through the lift turnstile automatically. No need for Wi-Fi or internet, the system can even work in plane mode through Bluetooth. For Guy Tessereau, managing director of SKIDATA France: “Our goal is always to make the customer journey easier. With the ski pass on your mobile phone, it is even easier to enjoy skiing.”

Vail Resort has been offering a new version of EpicMix Time in its EpicMix application since last December. It provides a full-day forecast of lift wait times, updated every 15 minutes. The technology is based on a compilation of data: wait time history, real-time skier flow, wait time at other lifts in the area, weather, day, and season.

In its latest climate report, the IPCC projected a temperature rise of +1.5°C to +4.4°C by 2100, depending on the GHG emission scenario. To objectify future snow cover and help ski areas make decisions, Météo France and Compagnie des

Alpes (CDA) have developed modelling tools.

Innovate to adapt. The mountain ecosystem is once again showing its agility by developing tools to project evolutions in snow cover, with perspectives that extend to the end of the century, level by level. The aim is to provide factual and scientific information to help areas make the right decisions in terms of investment and tourism strategy. Respectively called CLIMSNOW for Météo France and IMPACT for CDA, both tools share the same goal: To help ski areas make the climate transition.

CLIMSNOW is a result of the combination of expertise from Dianeige, INRAE, and Météo-France, a consortium combining the performance of applied scientific research and the expertise of tourism engineering in mountain resorts. Completed in 2020, it is based on modelling chains developped since 2014 by Météo France. Since the tool was created, 97 resorts have taken advantage of the solution, from the Alps to the Pyrenees. When asked how it works, Carlo Maria Carmagnola, researcher at Météo France, CNRS, Snow Studies Center, explains: “CLIMSNOW uses meteorological snow observations and the Météo-France measurement network to develop climate projections according to three greenhouse gas emission scenarios (reduction after 2050, stabilisation or strong increase). The data are run on a

supercomputer and then provides an estimation of the evolution of snow cover at different timescales and up to 2100.”

To understand the complexity and power of the calculations, it is important to know that the modelling chain takes into account the evolution of natural snow, of course, but also the effects of grooming and snow-making operations—depending on the period, the type of snow gun, the temperature or the wind speed—the slope, and the orientation of the slopes. “Mountains are treated individually. Within each range, slope, orientation, and altitude are explicitly taken into account, with eight different orientations, several different slopes and also altitudes in bands of 300 meters,” explains Carlo Carmagnola.

Ski areas receive the report in paper format and hold the keys to objectify each sector’s viability, plan structural investment choices in snow-making equipment, and initiate a transition in the tourism offer. “One of the most interesting points is that overall the three scenarios are in line with the 2050 projection. What will happen in 30 years’ time is already driven by the choices of the past. Decisions made today will have an impact in 3 decades, hence the importance of making informed choices;” continues Carlo Carmagnola.

The name IMPACT says it all: What is the impact of climate change on the evolution of snow-making in resorts? Developed in 2020, IMPACT primarily responds to a need for objectivity. “There is a lot of talk about the future of skiing in

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Neige de culture the face of climate change but nothing factual. IMPACT was Nombre d’heures de froid cumulées < -4°C born out of a need to scientifically objectify things to help ski < 100h area managers make decisions,” says Loïc Bonhoure, deputy managing director of Compagnie des Alpes.

100 à 200h Already used in the 10 ski areas managed by CDA, IMPACT is > 200h based on meteorological data from Météo France—rain/snow limit, precipitation, and temperature—and then implements its own data, thresholds, and criteria in snow-making and use, slope exposure, and altitude. The modelling takes into account two realistic progression scenarios for GHG emissions, based on a temperature rise of +2 and +4°C. The analysis is customized for each mountain range, in 75m x 75m zones, and can use past snow-making data to validate the reliability of its projections. “It is modelling confronted with knowledge of the history and the operator,” continues Loïc Bonhoure. The result is a monthly 3D view of the ski area—where the green/orange/red color code projects the viability of the snow cover over four 20-year periods until the end of the century, specifying the worst years and the median years. “It’s a very visual tool that unlocks the key to understand what the area will need for future developments: Water, investments in artificial snow-making systems, ropeway infrastructures if skiing home isn’t possible.”

As a ski area manager, CDA has implemented its expertise to produce a tool that is as close as possible to the needs of operators and developers. Already relevant for modelling future snow cover and the sizing of snow-making equipment, IMPACT has recently integrated a new module for calculating the economic impact on ski area turnover.

Two tools for essential awareness: “What I think is important is that everyone should take up the climate issue and that change should be objective,” concludes Loïc Bonhoure.

Thanks to the implementation of the «New Mobile Deal» in January 2018, the fiber roll-out, and the arrival of 5G, regions are becoming increasingly connected, and it’s areas with the least density that are seeing the biggest changes. In the mountains, it is an essential link in the transition. Where are we at today?

The New Mobile Deal establishes a landmark agreement between the government, the French regulatory authority for electronic communications, post and press distribution (ARCEP) and telephone operators, breaking with previous digital development programs. Designed to ensure quality mobile coverage in areas with no or poor coverage, it requires operators to install 5,000 new 4G sites, at a rate of 600 to 800 per year. By the end of October 2020, more than 2,000 areas to be covered had been identified throughout the country by local authorities and approved by the government, including more than 600 in mountainous areas*

SAYS DIDIER CHAMINADE, ORANGE REGIONAL DELEGATE FOR THE ALPS REGION Four years after its implementation, the New Mobile Deal shows substantial progress, increasing national 4G coverage from 45% in early 2018 to 76% by mid-2020. In the mountains on 30 September 2020, the proportion of the population covered varied from 92% to 97% depending on the operator, while the proportion of the territory covered varied between 68 and 79%*. One year later, at the end of November 2021, Orange announced that it would cover between 97 and 99.7% of the population with 4G in the Alps. The same proportion for Bouygues Telecom with 99% population coverage in the 70 ski resorts of the Centres and Alps region. In 2021, SFR and the Association Nationale des Elus de la Montagne (National Association of Mountain Elected Officials) signed a partnership agreement on the digital coverage of mountain territories, dead zones, fiber optics, and 5G. “As part of the New Mobile Deal in January 2018, I want to commend the work of the operators for the mobile coverage of mountain territories,” Jeanine Dubié, president of ANEM

In its 2021 report on Connected Territories, ARCEP also notes a clear increase in the roll-out of FttH (Fiber to the home) networks in mountainous areas, of around 40% per year. One third of buildings in the mountain area were FttH compatible by the end of Q3 2020. At the end of November 2021, Bouygues Telecom officiated the opening of 1600 connectable homes in Alpes d’huez, 3000 in Les Deux Alpes, and others are in the making in Savoie and Haute-Savoie. Everywhere, operators are relying on the public initiative networks of local authorities to market their fiber offers, reduce the digital divide, and make less densely populated areas more attractive.

SAYS CYRILLE-FRANTZ HONEGGER, REGIONAL DELEGATE CENTRE-EST SFR/ALTICE FRANCE

5G promises boosted performance. “In terms of speed and immediacy, this is a factor of 10 compared to 4G,” says Julien LAIR, regional network manager for the Centre, Alps and Mediterranean regions of Bouygues Telecom. As for the timetable, ARCEP points out that operators will have to roll out 3,000 sites in 2022, 8,000 sites in 2024, and 10,500 sites in 2025 over 3.4 3.8 GHz bands, 25% of which will be in sparsely populated areas such as mountainous regions. Operated from existing 4G sites, 5G will be a priority in high-density areas and is already gaining ground with the connection of Alpes d’Huez, the 1st 5G resort, followed by Morzine, Tignes, Val d’Isère, Isola 2000, Montgenèvre, Les Arcs, and Chamonix in winter 2021,” confirms Didier Chaminade of Orange. Thanks to Bouygues Telecom, 5G is coming to La Plagne, Megève, and Morzine in winter 2021. Far from being an escalation in technology, 5G is coming to its predecessor’s rescue. The 40% annual increase in the volume of data transmitted projects 4G saturation within the next 12 to 18 months in very high density areas. “It is a silent revolution that must be absorbed to ensure continuity of service,” confirms Didier Chaminade of Orange. Although mountainous areas, because they are only densely populated during high-season, are not yet greatly concerned with this prediction, 5G is nonetheless important to accompany the transition.

Virtual tours, websites, and applications to enhance the tourist experience, WiFi everywhere for area information and security, smart grids to reduce energy consumption, and even remote working, remote medicine, artificial intelligence, and the IoT (Internet of Things): Connectivity in the mountains is an essential link. The development of new uses and societal changes are inviting high-altitude areas to work on the quality of their networks. And the operators are there. “Digital inclusion is part of our CSR policy,” says Didier Chaminade of Orange, while Julien Lair of Bouygues Telecom adds, “developing the digital network in these regions is a strong commitment.”

STATES JEANINE DUBIÉ, PRESIDENT OF ANEM