MuniWireless

The recent Iliad-Free press release boasting of the world’s largest community Wi-Fi network has left many of us skeptical and puzzled. I posed a few questions to Xavier Niel, CEO of Iliad-Free, about the configuration of the network and the company’s intentions. Niel confirmed the network is now in beta “just like Gmail” with thousands of users, and it should be up and running soon. Iliad-Free is building a network of Wi-Fi hotspots that will cover France by relying on…

Next week, users in France will have a chance to sign up for a “quadruple play” package: high-speed Internet access, TV with up to 90 channels, unlimited fixed telephony and a mobile phone service for a stunningly low price of €45 ($60) from Bouygues Telecom. This is the first quadruple play offer in France.

Many observers had expected Iliad-Free to be the first operator in France to propose this kind of offer, but a series of delays in the allocation of…

Iliad-Free, a large broadband provider in France, showed a 42 percent increase in Q1 2009 revenues compared to Q1 2008 (from €340 million to €482 million) and a net increase of 142,000 subscribers for its ADSL service (compare this number to Q1 2008 when it added 137,000 subscribers). Iliad-Free claims to have 4.34 million subscribers and a 25 percent market share. In one year, the company added 800,000 subscribers, not including the 806,000 additional subscribers it acquired from Alice, a…

Two years ago, France granted 44 regional WiMAX licenses in the 3.5 GHz spectrum to operators and local governments, taking in €126 million in one of the most anticipated WiMAX auctions in Europe. This past summer, ARCEP, the French regulator conducted a survey to assess the speed of WiMAX deployments and determine whether WiMAX license holders had met the 30 June 2008 deadline. The findings are grim.

According to the terms of the WiMAX licenses,…

ARCEP, the French regulator, recently published on its website a set of documents and information about “sharing fiber to the home”. After about 18 months of investigation, trials, technical discussions and assessments, ARCEP concluded that one of the critical conditions for rapid deployment of fiber networks is a set of guidelines for operators, installers, owners and users to share the fiber local loop.

“To deploy a new local loop is an technical, economical and a competitive challenge for France,“ an ARCEP…