This article is part of a daily series of MegaProjects articles. If you want to know more about PPP projects with a considerable size visit our MegaProjects section. You can receive them by email on a daily basis.

The project company "Nord Pas de Calais", has signed the concession contract for the "Très Haut Débit" (THD) optic fibre network PPP project in France.

"Nord Pas de Calais" project company is formed by Axione, Bouygues Energies et Services, Mirova and the Caisse des Dépôts et Consignations.

The 25-years concession contract involves the design, building, financing, operation, maintenance and commercialisation of a publicly-owned passive fibre broadband public initiative network in low-density areas of the Nord Pas-de-Calais, France.

The project aims to have over 500,000 households with fibre to the house (FTTH), upgrade nearly 200 ADSL sites with fibre connectivity and to provide fibre access to nearly 75 public and business sites, all located in areas not covered by the commercial operators. The project envisages the deployment of 18,5000 km of fibre optic cable.

The estimated project investment stands at €700 million (US$750 million).

Legal firm, Clifford Chance, has adviced the sponsors on the concession contract.

In the telecom sector, we have recently reported that the Ministry of Communications and Transportation of México (SCT) awarded the Public Private Partnership (PPP) contract for the design, financing, deployment, operation and commercialization of Red Compartida to Altan, the last remaining bidder for the delayed tender on the national wholesale mobile network. The total budget for the project is estimated around US$7 billion.