French Minister for Industry François Loos wants service providers to link 4 million homes to the Internet using ultra-high-speed fiber to the home connections by 2012.
France has already seen spectacular growth in the number of DSL broadband Internet connections over the existing copper local telecom network: there are around 11 million DSL subscribers, up from 600,000 in 2002, said Loos, speaking at the opening ceremony of the Broadband World Forum conference in Paris on Monday.
There are a number of problems to overcome if ISPs are to reach that target of 4 million fiber connections, Loos said. Above all, he said, local government, building owners and network operators must agree to share the cable ducts that will carry the fiber. Negotiations are still under way, he said.
Loos will have little difficulty persuading French telecommunications operators to help him reach his goal.
France Télécom SA’s Chairman and CEO Didier Lombard was next on stage. He said of the minister’s target, “I think we will do better than that.”
The company has already made a start: by July, it had connected 100 homes in and around Paris to the Internet using an experimental FTTH network with a theoretical maximum data rate of 2.5Gbps. French DSL services typically top out at 18Mbps.
France Télécom uses the FTTH network to test demand for future broadband services. Customers involved in the trial pay €70 ($88) a month for a bundle including phone calls, digital TV and Internet access.
Rival operator Iliad SA aims to meet the minister’s goal by itself. Its Internet services subsidiary, Free, will invest €1 billion to lay FTTH connections to 4 million homes by 2012, it said in September. Free expects to connect the first homes in Paris by next June.
Lombard had a warning for Loos: If France Télécom is to invest billions of euros in a new fiber local access network, it must be able to assure shareholders that they will see a return on that investment, he said. Through years of regulatory change, “You have encouraged the creation of competing operators. Now you have to give operators some stability, so that they can invest,” he said.
