[IP] $ Broadband in France
Begin forwarded message:
From: Jeffrey Joslin <jj@xxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: March 29, 2006 6:54:49 PM EST
To: dave@xxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Re: [IP] Broadband in France
Reply-To: jj@xxxxxxxxxxx
Dave,
Coincidentally enough, I was just in a discussion on another list a
few weeks ago on the subject of US Broadband speeds and rates
relative to faster cheaper access in Asian and European markets, and
I went ahead and scouted out the current rates in the French market:
<snip>
NOOS, France's main cable company, currently offers the following:
10Mbps NOOS NET service at 24,90 €/month ( = $30.35/month US) for 1st
12 months, then it goes up to 24,90 €/month ( = $42.56/month US), but
you can always re-sign for next deal the following year once initial
contract is up.
http://www.noos.fr/main.php?offre=noosnet&page=10meg
4Mbps plan same price as 10Mbps, but price goes up to
29,90 €/month ( = $36.46/month US) after initial 12 months contract
1Mbps NOOS NET same price as 10Mbps at 24,90 €/month ( = $30.35/month
US), but price does not increase after 12 month contract is up.
What's more, they mention on the page linked above there that they
are in the process of rolling out 20Mbps service in new zones every
day (so to speak), but I wasn't able to cheat the page id at the end
of the "page=20meg" in the url to find out any pricing info.
However, I am guessing a mere additional 5 €/month ( ~ $6/month US)
based on major competitors existing offerings below.
On to the primary ADSL competitors....
Wanadoo, state-owned incumbent France Telecom's DSL service,
currently has the following:
18Mbps ADSL service at 29,90 €/month ( = $36.46/month US)
8Mbps ADSL service at 24,90 €/month ( = $30.35/month US)
1Mbps ADSL service at 19,90 €/month ( = $24.27/month US)
http://www.wanadoo.fr/bin/frame2.cgi?u=http%3A//abonnez-
vous.wanadoo.fr/index.php%3Fdams%3Dc_HD%26_ph%3D2
Also, I was able to find the shockingly low-priced, high speed
service availability at Neuf Telecom:
20Mbps ADSL for 14,90 €/month ( = $18.16/month US)
http://www.neuf.fr/offres/43/45/47.html
So that's France for ya.
</snip>
Seeing all these consumer- and innovation-friendly leaps being made
in France, Germany, Scandinavian countries, Korea, Japan etc.
(migrations to 20Mbps and 40Mbps services priced around $40/month to
customers) really drives home just how much our domestic market and
regulatory environment has us stuck with companies still soaking up
the most they can out of the existing 1.5/384 (or maybe 5.0/784)
broadband service marketplace for the near future, and only some
chance for a select few to get faster service via FTTP (Verizon FIOS,
for example).
At once, it is both the new age of bandwidth-ravenous consumer demand...
- explosive growth of new services like VOIP
- huge pushes in consumer electronics industry for ever-higher
megapixel photo and digital video products, meant to be shared online
or by email, feeding publish-yourself content to the likes of ofoto/
Kodak, Shutterfly, Flickr, Google Video, YouTube etc.
- next-generation networked applications
- broader and more frequent audience for online video news/sports/
entertainment media
- online broadband gaming services for game consoles and PCs
...as well as a time when I have witnessed many ISPs (often DSL or T1
providers) balk at demands for higher speeds, asserting that no one
with any legitimate uses in mind will ever need more than a few
hundred Kbps upstream, and a few Mbps downstream.
All those new electronics producing ever-larger files, and all those
much cheaper/bigger/faster hosting plans on the web (or free posting
sites), and yet the main conduit at your curb sees no need for speed
beyond older assumptions for email and basic html+images web browsing.
Kind of reminds me of similar arguments about MB hard drives years
ago. (who would *ever* need so much space? :)
Well, at least other countries are leaping ahead, and perhaps at some
point that will have the effect of finally shaking things up at home
in a meaningful way (especially now that Telecoms can leap into all
services like the Cable companies have had for some time now).
Better, faster, cheaper, stronger. True apples-to-apples competition
(or close enough..) will hopefully drive infrastructure investment
and consumer incentives just like the ones now in place overseas, and
give the consumer better choices.
jeffrey
___________________________________________________
jeffrey joslin
president
dev::impact
525 broadway, 2nd floor, new york, new york 10012
(office) 646.435.7878 (fax) 646.485.4068 (cel) 646.245.8800
(email) jeffrey@xxxxxxxxxxxxx (web) www.devimpact.com
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