Free (ISP)

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Free
Type SAS
Founded 1999
Founder(s) Xavier Niel
Headquarters Flag of France Paris, France
Area served France
Key people Xavier Niel, Maxime Lombardini, Rani Assaf, Antoine Levavasseur, Thomas Reynaud
Industry Telecommunications
Products ISP
Services Quadruple play
Revenue 1,212 million EUR (2007) ▲ +29.7%[1]
Net income 150.2 million EUR (2007) ▲ +24.4%[1]
Owner(s) Iliad
Employees 2275 (2007)[2]
Website www.free.fr

Free is a French ISP, which is a subsidiary of Iliad. It operates in France.

It was the first company to offer a Triple play service in France[3][4][5], through its self-produced singular Freebox set-top box. It claims to be the first company to have invented the box marketing concept in France[6], in reference to all the other French ISP which thereafter released Triple play modems named to include the anglicism box as a suffix. These boxes provide comprehensive telecommunication services such as high-speed internet, telephone and digital television packages. Free is recognized as the broadband innovations driver in France[7][8] and as the driver of competitive ISP offers in France[9][10] and in the 30 OECD countries [11].

Contents

[edit] History

[edit] 1999–2001: Network building and voiceband

See also: Dial-up internet access

Free was the third ISP in France to offer access to the Internet without subscription nor surcharged phone number the 26 April 1999[12]. Unlike its predecessors in the niche of access without subscription (World Online on 1999-04-01 and Freesurf on 1999-04-19) Free's offer was not restricted in time or number of subscribers. In 2002, Free was the first ISP to provide a V.92 connection[13].

Free dial-up offer milestones
Date Technology Down IP Up IP
1999-04-26[12] Voiceband 33.6 kbit/s 33,6 kbit/s
2002-02-27[13] V.92 56 kbit/s 33,6 kbit/s

[edit] 2002-2003: ADSL at a disruptive price

Free bundled ADSL offer milestones
Date Technology Down ATM Up ATM
2002-09-19[3] ADSL 512 kbit/s 128 kbit/s
2003-12-12[14] ADSL 1024 kbit/s 128 kbit/s
2004-07-27[15] ADSL 2048 kbit/s 128 kbit/s
2005-02-09[16] ADSL 10 Mbit/s 320 kbit/s
2005-07-20[17] ADSL 10 Mbit/s 1 Mbit/s
2008-03-20[18] ADSL2+ 22 Mbit/s 1 Mbit/s

[edit] 2004-2006: Unbundled ADSL and triple play

See also: Local-loop unbundling

Unbundling, in France, refers to the obligation for the incumbent carrier France Télécom to lease the Local loop, because it is a natural monopoly. Although the unbundling process was intended to start by year 2000, the actual unbundling process actually started at the end of 2002, after a long conflict between the French regulation authority ARCEP and not cooperating incumbent[19].

Free has to pay a rental fee of 9 € per month and per subscriber to the incumbent for the Twisted pair of Copper between the area central office and the subscriber premises[20]. Although being more expensive than the real cost of 7.63 €[21], this solution is still far more profitable than the bundled option.

Since January 2003, a Freenaut maintains an unofficial website showing figures and graphics about Free unbundled network deployment (Free Unbundling (French)). Another Freenaut website provides network status monitoring maps (Unbundling status and location (French)) since end 2003. These initiatives are made possible thanks to the transparency of Free's network (equipments are replying to ping and have a meaningful reverse DNS).

Free unbundled ADSL offer milestones
Date Technologies Down ATM Up ATM
2003-11-27[5] ADSL 1024 kbit/s 256 kbit/s
2003-12-12[14] ADSL 2048 kbit/s 256 kbit/s
2004-06-04[22] ADSL 5 Mbit/s 350 kbit/s
2004-08-24[23] ADSL 6 Mbit/s 1 Mbit/s
2004-10-20[24] ADSL2+ 15 Mbit/s 1 Mbit/s
2005-01-06[25] ADSL2+ 20 Mbit/s 1 Mbit/s
2005-11-08[26] ADSL2+ 24 Mbit/s 1 Mbit/s
2006-07-26[27] 28 Mbit/s 1 Mbit/s
2007-06-21[28] 28 Mbit/s 1 Mbit/s

[edit] 2007-present: Fiber to the home

See also: Fiber-optic communication
Free FTTH deployment milestones
Date Technology Down IP Up IP Deployment
2006-09-11[29] Iliad P2P[30] 50 Mbit/s 50 Mbit/s One NRO and some testers in Paris
2007-08-31[31] Iliad P2P[30] 100 Mbit/s 50 Mbit/s Some NROs and few subscribers in Paris[30]
2008-06-26[31] Iliad P2P[30] 100 Mbit/s 50 Mbit/s Inauguration of Montpellier FTTH network[32]

Free announced on 2006-09-11, the launch of the deployment of a new FTTH network for its subscribers[29]. The initial plan targets by 2012 the coverage of Paris as well as some towns in Paris suburbs and elected neighborhoods in French provincial cities. In December 2007, the work was done at 30% and the remaining was progressing "at a furious pace"[8].

On 2007-08-31, Free details and updates the offer. The download bandwidth will be 100 Mbit/s and TV services will be available on two Televisions (still for € 29.99 / month)[31].

Free has developed its own fiber network technology, called Iliad P2P, based on Ethernet in the First Mile and having a point to point (P2P) topology [30]. High curvature optic fibers are manufactured by the Dutch company Draka[33][34].

The deployment is still essentially in the horizontal phase (vertical phase is the connection to the subscriber premises) and large scale deployment to customers is foreseen[35]. On 26 June 2008, Maxime Lombardini and the mayor inaugurated Free's FTTH network achieved in a district of Montpellier[32].

On March 2008, Iliad made the commitment to cover Paris at 75% by second semester 2009 and reiterated its goal to connect 4 million French homes to its own FTTH network by 2012[36]. Significant volumes of subscribers will be connected as soon as the legislative framework is in place[1], expected by ARCEP in autumn 2009[37][38].

Since November 2008, a Freenaut maintains an unofficial website showing maps of Free FTTH network deployment (Unofficial follow-up of Free optic fiber deployment (French)) .

[edit] Future: Application for a 3G license

See also: Fourth french 3G licence

[edit] Offers

[edit] Voiceband

Extent

Voiceband Dial-up internet access offer counts nowadays an insignificant number of subscribers as 98% of French homes were eligible to ADSL in 2006[39].

Pricing
  • Free of charge Internet access, data phone calls fees not included;
  • or Internet access 50 hours data phone calls included for 14.94 euros per month.

[edit] Freebox offer

Initially, Freebox was the name of the Freebox device which consists of the Set-top box and Modem. Because of the popularity and reputation of the device, it eventually became the name of the offer.

[edit] Services

[edit] Internet access

Early IPv6 deployment
See also: IPv6

According to a study published by Google at the RIPE meeting in October 2008, Free is probably the most important native IPv6 ISP in the World[42]. By end 2008, almost all French IPv6 traffic measured in the study comes from Free customers[42].

Free has deployed the IPv6 infrastructure in only 5 weeks from November 7 to December 11 2007 thanks to the innovative 6rd (IPv6 rapid deployment) proposal by Rémi Després[41].

Wifi community network
See also: FreeWifi

[edit] Telephone

Included telephone calls
Included international phone calls
Date Number of destinations at no extra cost
Landline Mobiles
July 2003[4] 1 (Metropolitan France, unbundled subscribers only) 0
March 2004[43] 1 (Metropolitan France, all subscribers since then) 0
December 2005[44] 15 (United Kingdom, China, Singapore, Australia...) 2 (USA and Canada)
June 2006[45] 26 (Taiwan, Norway, Canary Islands, Jersey, Greece...) 2
January 2007[46] 49 (Turkey, Poland, Luxembourg, Russia, Japan...) 2
September 2007[47] 70 (Peru, Venezuela, South Korea, New Zealand...) 2
February 2009[48][49] 100 (India, South Africa, Laos, Colombia, Indonesia...) 2

In 2003, Free introduced unlimited phone calls at no additional price, while other phone operators or ISPs charged fees for each minute of telephone call[4]. Competitors have then been forced to imitate these evolutions but always with fewer destinations included or with an additional price[7][10]. Bundled subscribers enjoy same free calls as those unbundled since March 2004[43]. Calls to United States and Canada mobile phones are free of charge since December 2005[44].

In 2006, Free and France Télécom were in conflict against unfair increase of Neuf Cegetel own termination tariff, aimed at undermining unlimited phone offers in France. French regulator ARCEP then decided to apply a threshold for call termination[50]. Unlimited free phone calls are perennial in France since then.

Telephone services

A wide range of telephone services are provided at no additional price, such as Answering machine, Ringback tone customization, call transfer, caller ID, inbound and outbound calls filtering, conference call, Wi-Fi voice SIP[51].

Since April 2007, each customer is assigned a fax number in addition to the traditional phone number. This additional line is dedicated to the online faxing service[52].

[edit] Television

IPTV leader

According to a study published in 2008 by Light Reading[53], Free is by far the biggest IPTV carrier in the World[54]. This fact is also confirmed by the TV Markets Quarterly Monitoring[55].

ARDP protocol creator

Access rights of television channels are applied securely without requiring any smartcard thanks to the ARDP protocol created by Free and submitted to the community through the IETF[56].

[edit] Other services

[edit] Corporate affairs

[edit] Market share

See also: Internet in France

Since August 2008, parent company Iliad (including Free and Alice brands) is the second ISP in France. The leader is Orange (former state monopoly company France Télécom) and the third one is SFR.

In 2007 (a major consolidation year in the French broadband market) Free was the only ISP brand to gain market share[59].

Free was the second French ISP up to end June 2007, when competitor Neuf Cegetel acquired Club Internet (T-Online France)[60]. Neuf Cegetel used to grow essentially by purchasing its competitors until it was itself absorbed by SFR. Free has always had a higher organic growth than Neuf Cegetel and SFR.

However Iliad regained its second place after buying "Alice Telecom" from Telecom Italia in the summer of 2008[61].

Up to the purchase of Alice France[61], Free's subscribers growth was exclusively organic, except the strategic acquisition of the Citéfibre FTTH ISP in 2006 (about 500 subscribers)[58].

Free broadband subscribers and market share since 2002
Year Free Broadband subscribers ADSL subscribers in France Broadband subscribers in France
Bundled Unbundled Total[62] Unbundling ratio Total[63] Free market share Total[63] Free market share
2002 95,000 3,000 98,000 3.1% 1,361,377 7.2%
2003 320,000 153,000 473,000 32.4% 2,967,434 15.9%
2004 500,000 549,000 1,049,000 52.4% 6,072,723 17.2% 6,529,997 16.0%
2005[64] 475,000 1,120,000 1,595,000 70.2% 8,881,875 17,9% 9,500,000 16,8%
2006[64] 548,000 1,730,000 2,278,000 75.9% 12,019,000 19.0% 12,700,000 17.9%
2007[35] 537,000 2,367,000 2,904,000 81.5% 14,741,000 19.7% 15,550,000 18.7%

[edit] Profitability

See also: Local-loop unbundling

Free claims to be the first profitable ISP in France[3] and to have the lowest subscriber acquisition cost amongst French operators[64].

The unbundling ratio is one of the key strategic figures:

Because of bandwidth cost[20], only a subset of the TV services is offered to bundled subscribers; while unbundled subscribers can access value-added services such as VOD and Subscription VOD. Revenues of those services are constantly increasing[65][1].

In 2007, Free had the greatest EBITDA margin of the sector in Europe; was the only actor to gain market share in France and had a debt ratio 10 times lower than the industry average. Thanks to these assets, the initial FTTH deployment (targeted at 2012) will be entirely self-financed by existing activities[36].

Although investors are concerned about the investments in both 3G mobile network and a FTTH network (1 billion euro each)[66], the perspectives of Free and of the whole sector in Europe are promising according to analysts[67].

[edit] Logos and slogans

[edit] Criticism

[edit] Culture

Disruptive

Free is the last independent operator in France. Google is sometimes suggested as a comparison for the Free spirit. Unlike all other French broadband ISPs, almost everything is designed inside the company: Freebox devices, DSLAMs, network switches and backend billing system[8]. The company has a medium and long term industrial strategy rather than the short term financial strategy of its competitors[66].

"Resist, persist and ignore the obstacles, are probably the greatest qualities of the culture of Free, a culture that has enabled this operator and its leaders to move forward and keep this company alive and leader, against all odds. Technologically, this is a company ready to make choices without worrying about what is happening around."[68]

Free is often designated by journalists as the "broadband maverick"[8], the "troublemaker of the Internet"[69], a "do-it-yourselfer"[7], a "pioneer in IPTV"[70], a "truly disruptive company"[10], the "geek's ISP", the "cactus of the telecoms" [71], the "Broadband Rebel", "one of the greatest French industrial successes of the last twenty years", a "Silicon Valley success story", a "Robin Hood", an "Uncle Scrooge", a "nightmare vision for Orange, SFR and Bouygues"[72].

Openness

The ISP or its owner Xavier Niel promotes free and independent media, such as:

Anecdotes
  • the call center is run almost entirely on Ubuntu-based PCs[8];
  • on startup, each Freebox HD device displays Rock'n'roll on TV screen;
  • on advertising pictures, the time displayed by the Freebox device is 13:37 (leet);
  • during peak load hours, Free accounts for nearly half the traffic on the Amsterdam Internet Exchange[8];
  • in February 2000, Xavier Niel offered 10 million francs to Google directors to buy their search engine activities in France (the offer was declined)[81];
  • the name Free was chosen in 1999 two weeks before the launch of the service and became eventually the name of the company, the other candidate name was Online[82] ;
  • Freebox device name has been inspired by the name of a pack of cigarettes[83][84].
Freenauts

"Freenaut" is the common designation for each internaut making use of Internet through a Free connection. This community is estimated to reach between 10 and 12 million individuals as of march 2009[85].

The freenaut community includes a core group of technology enthusiasts, which contributes to Free influence and popularity in several ways:

  • user web sites hosted by Free for free;
  • live TV Perso shows presenters;
  • Télésite developers (news, weather, games, video blogs, alternate TV interfaces...);
  • Free wiki writers;
  • developers of Freeplayer software;
  • contributors to Free bugtracker;
  • network monitoring, unbunling curve graphs and FTTH deployement maps.
Popularity in France

According to recurrent audience measurement reports conducted by Médiamétrie, Free's general portal is the fourth most popular website in France [86][87][88].

[edit] See also

Companies portal
Internet portal
General
  • Freebox − French first triple play set-top box.
Services
  • TV Perso - World's first personnal television service (TV2.0) on TV.
  • FreeWifi - World's largest Wifi community network.

[edit] References

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  55. ^ "Top European IPTV drivers" (in English). 2008-03-11. http://www.fierceiptv.com/story/top-european-iptv-drivers/2008-03-11/document.asp?doc_id=142594&page_number=11. Retrieved on 2008-10-30. 
  56. ^ Cassen, Alexandre (2009-01-12) (in English), Access Right Distribution Protocol (ARDP), pp. 35, http://www.ietf.org/internet-drafts/draft-cassen-access-right-distribution-protocol-05.txt, retrieved on 2009-05-07 
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  59. ^ a b Iliad (2008-03-12) (in English) (PDF). 2007 Results: Slide Show. Press release. http://www.iliad.fr/en/finances/2008/ILIAD_RA_2007.pdf. Retrieved on 2008-03-16. 
  60. ^ Neuf Cegetel (2007-07-02) (in English) (PDF). Neuf Cegetel Mass Market broadband customers top the 3 million mark. Press release. http://www.groupeneufcegetel.fr/dyn/File/2007_EN/070702CP-Club-Internet_EN.pdf. Retrieved on 2008-02-23. 
  61. ^ a b Iliad (2008-08-26) (in English) (PDF). Iliad has completed the acquisition of Alice France from Telecom Italia. Press release. http://www.iliad.fr/en/finances/2008/CP_260808_Eng.pdf. Retrieved on 2008-11-30. 
  62. ^ "Iliad annual reports" (in English). Iliad. http://www.iliad.fr. 
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  64. ^ a b c Iliad (2007-02-07) (in English) (PDF). 2006 Revenues. Press release. http://www.iliad.fr/en/finances/2007/CP_070207_CA_Eng.pdf. Retrieved on 2008-02-10. 
  65. ^ a b c Iliad (2007-10-29) (in English) (PDF). 3Q 2007 Revenues. Press release. http://www.iliad.fr/en/finances/2007/CP_291007_Eng.pdf. Retrieved on 2008-02-10. 
  66. ^ a b "Iliad : des performances sans équivalents en Europe" (in French). 2009-03-20. http://fr.biz.yahoo.com/20032009/17/iliad-des-performances-sans-equivalents-en-europe.html. Retrieved on 2009-03-30. 
  67. ^ "European Telecoms Operators in Strong Position to Ride Out Recession" (in English). 2009-03-10. http://finance.yahoo.com/news/European-Telecoms-Operators-bw-14591104.html. Retrieved on 2009-03-30. 
  68. ^ "Parler à Free, un plaisir hors de prix ?" (in French). 2009-02-09. http://www.ariase.com/fr/news/free-freeks-hotline-chatel-article-1969.html. Retrieved on 2009-03-29. 
  69. ^ "Free, trublion de l'internet, pourrait aussi changer la donne côté mobile" (in French). 2009-01-14. http://www.24heures.ch/depeches/hi-tech/free-trublion-internet-pourrait-changer-cote-mobile. Retrieved on 2009-03-14. 
  70. ^ Ateme (2007-03-14) (in English). Renowned Businessman and Visionary Founder of Free Telecom, Xavier Niel, Joins ATEME Board of Directors. Press release. http://www.ateme.com/press_releases_archives_detail.php5?id=29. Retrieved on 2009-03-14. 
  71. ^ "Xavier Niel, fondateur de Free, le cactus des télécoms" (in French). 2008-03-26. http://www.capital.fr/carriere/dossiers/xavier-niel-fondateur-de-free-le-cactus-des-telecoms-193693. Retrieved on 2009-03-12. 
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  85. ^ "Chilipoker parie sur l'ouverture du marché des jeux en ligne" (in French). 2009-03-09. http://www.lexpress.fr/actualite/economie/chilipoker-parie-sur-l-ouverture-du-marche-des-jeux-en-ligne_746091.html. Retrieved on 2009-03-14. 
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[edit] Further reading

[edit] External links

In English
In French
  • Freenews — First independent news website and TV channel about Free held by volunteers
  • UniversFeebox — Most active news website about Free held by volunteers
  • Journal du Freenaute — News website about Free with some investigation items
  • Freeplayer.org — Community of Freeplayer and related tools developers
  • Freephonie.org — Community of Freenauts using the Freephonie SIP network
  • Portail Free — Free's general portal
  • Offre Internet — Internet offer description and subscription website
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