[IP] Broadband in France
Begin forwarded message:
From: "Steven M. Bellovin" <smb@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: March 28, 2006 11:04:53 AM EST
To: dave@xxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Broadband in France
For IP, if you wish.
There's a fascinating article in today's Wall Street Journal about
broadband in France. (If you subscribe, it's at
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB114351413029509718.html?
mod=technology_featured_stories_hs
The article starts: "For years, France's telecommunications industry
was a
state-owned monopoly with one of the world's most backward broadband
markets. But thanks to deregulation six years ago, French consumers have
access to high-speed Internet service that is much faster and cheaper
than
in the U.S."
From Iliad, for 30 Euros, you can get 81 TV channels, ulimited
calling to 15 countries, and high-speed Internet. Download speeds
are up to 24M bps, compared with the U.S. average of about 1.5M
bps. TV is transmitted over IP, as is voice. (The article estimates
that 40% of the French fixed-line telephony market will be VoIP by
the end of the year.)
How did they do it? Part of it was their own hardware design; they
build
their own DSLAMs and "Freeboxes"; the latter is based on Linux. But the
big difference seems to be regulatory:
In 2000, French regulators required the country's dominant
France Telecom SA to make its national network of phone
lines available to other providers of phone and Internet
services.
France Telecom had to allow alternative providers like
Iliad, Neuf-Cegetel, and Telecom Italia SpA's Alice to
install their own equipment in the massive underground
centers that collect thousands of phone lines. Regulators
determine how much France Telecom could charge providers
to rent its lines and how many days France Telecom has to
fix service problems reported by competitors' customers.
--Steven M. Bellovin, http://www.cs.columbia.edu/~smb
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