DSL Internet speed can be explained, according to my brother who lives in the US, with the way that local carriers segmented the broadband network by area. ISPs in the US, maybe in Canada too?, apparently benefit from a quasi-monopoly per location, whereas in France network access is national and guaranteed, meaning that wherever you are in the territory, you can subscribe to any DSL offer from any ISP as a form of public service.
As a result, in 2002, Free came up with their disruptive all-in-one 30€/month DSL box. The announcement single-handedly killed AOL France which was offering 45€/month for an inferior service, like the rest of the competition. The survivors had to align their prices, and there was much pain and rejoicing.
What I saw this morning could be history repeating itself. I wouldn't be surprised to see Bouygues Telecom (the "weaker" of the three legacy Mobile Carriers) shut down within months. However you put it, Free's offer is both superior on paper and cheaper than the competition.
I'm not sure about pricing of mobile plans compared to French ones, it was actually the opposite when I did a quick survey of iPhone plans comparing France's Orange to USA's AT&T offers, I saw something like a 30% cheaper phone and a 10% cheaper plan in the US than in France with napkin maths for taxes. One thing is for sure, we've had quadruple play offers for a while now, and the very low DSL price since 2002 helped a lot with the overall family budget.
> I'm not sure about pricing of mobile plans compared to French ones, it was actually the opposite when I did a quick survey of iPhone plans comparing France's Orange to USA's AT&T offers, I saw something like a 30% cheaper phone and a 10% cheaper plan in the US than in France with napkin maths for taxes.
Yep, France had/has very good broadband thanks to Free, but the mobile scene is one of the worst in western Europe, pretty much every country around it provides better service at better rates. The "Big Three" (Orange, SFR and Bouygues) have basically colluded to keep prices high and offers dreadfully opaque rates (to avoid easy comparisons between providers), and so far MVNOs have not managed to dent this. French MVNOs also tend to be even worse than the big tree for data.
Free has both name recognition and a very good offer probably piggybacking on the forces it built as a broadband carrier, I fully expect the big three to get pulled kicking and screaming into finally providing descent service. Or dying. That would be nice too.
