$ Broadband in France

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: Jeffrey Joslin <jj () joslins net>
Date: March 29, 2006 6:54:49 PM EST
To: dave () farber net
Subject: Re: [IP] Broadband in France
Reply-To: jj () joslins net

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 () devimpact com  (web) www.devimpact.com




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