France - Broadband Market - Fibre and Wireless Services

Synopsis

France is among the top three countries in Europe for fibre deployment, with growth bolstered both by demand for high bandwidth applications and by alternative operators keen to build networks independent from France Telecom. Fibre infrastructure has benefited from one of Europe’s most far-reaching investment programs, with leading operators such as France Telecom, SFR, Numéricable and Iliad concentrating on the more expensive but robust FttH rather than the fibre/VDSL2 hybrid networks favoured by most other operators in Europe. The country also benefits from a regulator which has promoted fibre effectively, and from legislation introduced in August 2008 which facilitates fibre access among providers. This report assesses France’s fibre, wireless and satellite broadband markets in 2010, reviewing the strategies of the principal providers and analysing the regulatory implications for municipal-funded fibre networks and the tightened regulatory regime for the maturing WiFi/WiMAX market.

Table of Contents

• 1. Synopsis
  
• 2. Fibre market
  
  • 2.1 Overview
    
  • 2.2 Regulatory issues
    
    • 2.2.1 Legislation 2008
      
    • 2.2.2 Measures 2009
      
    • 2.2.3 Government support to 2019
      
  • 2.3 Regional support
    
  • 2.4 Local authorities
    
• 3. Fibre-to-the-Home (FttH) networks
  
  • 3.1 Statistics
    
  • 3.2 France Telecom
    
  • 3.3 Iliad (Free)
    
  • 3.4 SFR
    
  • 3.5 Numéricable
    
  • 3.6 Municipal drive - Paris
    
  • 3.7 Other municipal projects
    
  • 3.8 The Pau Project
    
  • 3.9 Fibre network sharing
    
• 4. Wireless broadband
  
  • 4.1 Wireless Local Loop (WLL)
    
    • 4.1.1 First round
      
    • 4.1.2 Second round
      
  • 4.2 WiMAX players
    
  • 4.3 WLAN/WiFi
    
    • 4.3.1 Market overview
      
    • 4.3.2 SFR
      
    • 4.3.3 Orange
      
    • 4.3.4 Boingo
      
  • 4.4 Free
    
  • 4.5 Public Analogue Mobile Radio (PAMR)
    
  • 4.6 Internet via satellite
    
  • 4.7 Mobile broadband
    
• 5. Related reports
  

• Table 1 – Fibre-based broadband statistics – 2008 - 2009
• Table 2 – France Telecom fibre subscribers – 2006 - 2009
• Table 3 – Free projections - Paris fibre - 2006; 2008; 2010; 2012; 2014
• Table 4 – WiMAX operators and deployments 3.4-3.8GHz band - 2008
• Table 5 – WiMAX licences by operator – 2009 - 2010
• Table 6 – Orange mobile broadband subscribers – 2004 - 2009

• Exhibit 1 – Orange and SFR WiFi plans compared