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Managed Optical Fiber Network (MOFN)

Your private optical infrastructure with dedicated fiber and equipment, deployed and operated by Orange Wholesale

With our Managed Optical Fiber Network (MOFN), we deploy your dedicated optical infrastructure offers, designed according to your technical standards, managed by Orange 24/7, 365 days a year.
You benefit from a wide range of bandwidth capacity, sovereign routes and a managed model that accelerates your cloud and AI deployments, without complicating your organization.

Overview

The impact of AI on network traffic extends far beyond the networks of major hyperscalers. AI-driven traffic is increasingly  interlaced with traditional traffic streams carried across all carrier networks. New AI-focused companies may emerge and seek to build their own network infrastructure, In this context:

  • Hyperscalers are seeking to extend their infrastructure to new markets to maintain market leadership.
  • Neoscalers and new AI/GPU-as-a-Service players want to emulate hyperscale-level infrastructures and scale quickly without operational complexity of their incumbent competitors.
  • Operators are therefore seeking to address these imperatives by leveraging their fibers and strategic geographical positions, while modernizing their backbones.

In this context, the Managed Optical Fiber Network (MOFN) model emerges as a natural response

What is a Managed Optical Fiber Network (MOFN)?

A Managed Optical Fiber Network (MOFN) is an optical network built and operated by Orange for a client (hyperscaler, neoscaler, cloud service provider, enterprise,  public sector organisation etc.), according to its own specifications:

  • You define the design: topology, routes, optical platforms, service profiles, protection, manufacturer choice.
  • Orange builds, owns and operates the infrastructure on your behalf.
  • Orange ensures end-to-end operations, with commitments to quality, availability and recovery times.

Orange has the expertise to deliver MOFN solutions based on leading OEMs (Original Equipment Manufacturers) in the market.
As a result, Orange Wholesale can act as the MOA, helping you design the solution in collaboration with your preferred OEM partner.

Why choose MOFN?

While dark fiber scarcity, regulatory red tape, massive infrastructure costs, and slow deployment cycles threaten to stall your cloud and AI expansion, discover how our fully managed optical backbone delivers the ultimate power of a private network without the burden of building it yourself.

Overcoming dark fiber scarcity

Skip the difficult and lengthy process of acquiring dark fiber. You define your technical specifications, and Orange builds a dedicated optical network on your behalf

Delegating regulatory complexity

Securing network licenses can be challenging. As a licensed operator, Orange handles all local compliance and regulatory constraints, enabling you to expand in regions where obtaining an operator license is uncertain or impossible.

Shifting from CapEx to OpEx

Avoid the massive upfront investments and heavy operational burdens of building an infrastructure. Orange finances and operates the network, allowing you to focus your capital and teams on your core business while converting CapEx into predictable OpEx

Accelerating time-to-market & scalability

Bypass the long cycles of proprietary deployments. We use our existing infrastructure to build a network tailored to your specific technological standards, offering native, step-by-step scalability to match your growth seamlessly.

Enhancing security with dedicated infrastructure

Orange builds a network dedicated to your use, your traffic isn't shared with other clients, the risk of interception or incident propagation is drastically reduced, and you retain full control over your own encryption and security policies.

Overcome the challenge in training and recruiting experts

Orange has a worldwide proven and state of arts expertise in deploying and operating your network with the respect of your organization and SLA standards

Tailored solutions

  • Leasing Wavelenghts capacity using our IPL Product can be an interesting solution when low capacity is needed but can be less cost-effective during scaling.
  • In the other hand our Dark Fiber solutions can be a good option that permits you to build and operate your own network in some regions where there are no constraints (regulatory, fiber scarcity, operational…).
  •  MOFN is a good compromise between these two offers:
    • It provides you the cost-effectiveness that you target when building a dedicated network
    • And at the same time you can count on Orange to provide you this network avoiding the constraints that you encounter in a DIY solution based on Dark Fiber
  • MOFN gives you the flexibility to tailor the solution architecture and scale capacity progressively as your needs evolve.

AI Ready infrastructure

High-performance connectivity for demanding AI workloads

We partner with hyperscalers and neoclouds to provide a resilient, ultra-high-speed backbone that turns raw computing power into operational intelligence.

Learn more

International Private Line (IPL)

Dedicated high speed connections

Our IPL solution provides a highly secure, Layer 1 private line with speeds up to 400 Gbps, ideal for businesses requiring uncompromised performance and scalability.

Learn more

Dark Fiber

Unlit optical infrastructure

Dark Fiber provides dedicated, unlit optical infrastructure that gives you full control over your network design, capacity, and equipment. It is the ideal foundation for building secure, scalable, and high-performance connectivity between your critical sites.

Learn more

FAQ

Answers to your most frequent questions

Orange can support you at every stage of your increase in throughput and geographical expansion thanks to a MOFN designed to evolve with your needs. As the network is built to your specifications and operated by Orange, we can plan from the start a scalable architecture, with modular capabilities and expansion options that allow you to increase speeds without compromising the entire design. In the event of a new site or region, Orange takes care of the local infrastructure, regulatory constraints and commissioning, which greatly reduces deployment times. You benefit from a dedicated optical network, able to track your cloud and AI roadmaps, while maintaining a high level of availability, security and operational control.

Orange can guarantee a good level of latency with the MOFN by designing the network according to your application constraints from the outset: choice of routes, selection of interconnection points, optimized topology and limitation of unnecessary hops. Because the network is dedicated, we avoid contention and arbitrage related to shared infrastructure, which contributes to more stable and predictable latency. For IA players, Orange can also scale the solution to best connect training and inference data centers with main connectivity hubs, in order to reduce physical distances. Finally, the 24/7 managed operation allows performance to be maintained over time thanks to supervision, maintenance of operational condition and proactive incident management.

Orange’s MOFN helps you find a balance between network budget and speed to market by avoiding an "own build" model that is heavy with capex, deadlines, and internal resources. Orange supports the construction and operation of optical infrastructure, which reduces your need to invest immediately in complete network assets while giving you a dedicated backbone, designed according to your priorities. This way, you can scale capacities in stages, in line with your functional roadmap, instead of overinvesting too early. In practice, this allows you to accelerate the launch of your services, preserve your capital for your core business and gradually adjust the network to the real growth of your uses.

Yes, the MOFN is specifically designed to provide flexibility. The network is defined according to your needs and can evolve with changes in topology, capacity or geographical coverage, without leaving a blank page each time. Orange can adapt the architecture, capacities and protection options to support the opening of a new site, the extension to a new region or a rapid increase in throughput. You thus benefit from a dedicated but evolving backbone, capable of tracking your business and technical tradeoffs over time.

A MOFN contributes to your sovereignty needs by giving you a dedicated optical network, built and operated according to your requirements, with better control of routes, points of presence and interconnection areas. As Orange supports infrastructure and operations, you can rely on a trusted operator, present locally and able to integrate the regulatory constraints of the country or region. The model also allows better control over the flow of critical data by limiting infrastructure sharing with other clients. For sensitive cloud and AI uses, the MOFN thus provides a more compatible base with sovereignty, compliance, and operational control objectives.

Yes, in principle the MOFN is precisely designed to be built according to your specifications, which may include the choice of technology partner, subject to technical feasibility, network compatibility and applicable contractual frameworks. Orange can support the deployment and operation of the optical infrastructure with the agreed equipment, in order to offer you an end-to-end dedicated network.

The MOFN from Orange offers you greater financial flexibility by avoiding to support alone all the investments related to a proprietary optical backbone. Orange finances, builds and operates the infrastructure, making it possible to convert part of the network investment costs into usage expenses or service charges, depending on the chosen contractual arrangement.

Orange is one of the operators to have first deployed a MOFN-type solution, particularly in the Paris region for a hyperscaler client.

MOFN solution can provide, from the design stage, a contractual and operational framework that formalizes Orange’s access to partner manufacturer support. Concretely, this means support agreements, escalation procedures, shared operating interfaces and clearly defined responsibilities between you, Orange and the vendor. As Orange operates the network on a daily basis, it can open and manage tickets with the manufacturer according to established processes, which ensures consistent support in case of incidents or changes. Selecting a manufacturer that has been validated in advance and integrated into the MOFN design finally secures the continuity of support throughout the network’s life cycle. In General a MOFN models means that Orange will own the equipment’s even if they are dedicated to your network.