Free (ISP)


Free
Type SAS
Founded 1999
Founder 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 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 English word box. These boxes provide comprehensive telecommunication services such as high-speed internet, telephone and digital television packages. In 2007 - a consolidation year in the French broadband market - Free was the only ISP brand to gain market share [7].

Contents

History

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 in February 1999 [8]. Its predecessors in the niche of access without subscription were World Online on 1999-04-01, then Freesurf on 1999-04-19. In 2002, Free was the first ISP to provide a V.92 connection [9].

Free dial-up offer milestones
Date Technology Down IP Up IP
1999-02-27 [8] Voiceband 33.6 kbit/s 33,6 kbit/s
2002-02-27 [9] V.92 56 kbit/s 33,6 kbit/s

Bundled ADSL

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 [10] ADSL 1024 kbit/s 128 kbit/s
2004-07-27 [11] ADSL 2048 kbit/s 128 kbit/s
2005-02-09 [12] ADSL 10 Mbit/s 320 kbit/s
2005-07-20 [13] ADSL 10 Mbit/s 1 Mbit/s
2008-03-20 [14] ADSL2+ 22 Mbit/s 1 Mbit/s

Unbundled ADSL

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[10] ADSL 2048 kbit/s 256 kbit/s
2004-06-04[15] ADSL 5 Mbit/s 350 kbit/s
2004-08-24[16] ADSL 6 Mbit/s 1 Mbit/s
2004-10-20[17] ADSL2+ 15 Mbit/s 1 Mbit/s
2005-01-06[18] ADSL2+ 20 Mbit/s 1 Mbit/s
2005-11-08[19] ADSL2+ 24 Mbit/s 1 Mbit/s
2006-07-26[20] 28 Mbit/s 1 Mbit/s
2007-06-21[21] 28 Mbit/s 1 Mbit/s

Fiber to the home

Free FTTH deployment milestones
Date Technology Down IP Up IP Deployment
2006-09-11 [22] Iliad P2P [23] 50 Mbit/s 50 Mbit/s One NRO and some testers in Paris
2007-08-31 [24] Iliad P2P [23] 100 Mbit/s 50 Mbit/s Some NROs and few subscribers in Paris [23]
2008-06-26 [24] Iliad P2P [23] 100 Mbit/s 50 Mbit/s Inauguration of Montpellier FTTH network [25]

Free announced on 2006-09-11, the launch of the deployment of a new FTTH network for its subscribers[22]. 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" [26].

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) [24].

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 [23]. High curvature optic fibers are manufactured by the Dutch company Draka [27][28].

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 [29]. On 26 June 2008, Maxime Lombardini and the mayor inaugurated Free's FTTH network achieved in a district of Montpellier [25].

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 [30]. Significant volumes of subscribers will be connected as soon as the legislative framework is in place [1].

Offers

Free of charge services

RTC Internet access

The Voiceband Internet access offer counts nowadays an insignificant number of subscribers as 98% of French homes were eligible to ADSL in 2006[32].

Freebox offer

Freebox was initially the name of the Set-top box and Modem: the Freebox device. It became afterwards also the name of the offer because of the popularity and reputation of the device.

Internet access

Telephone

Unlimited telephone calls

Included international phone calls
Date Number of destinations at no extra cost
Landline Mobiles
July 2003 [33] 1 (Metropolitan France, unbundled subscribers only) 0
March 2004 [34] 1 (Metropolitan France, all subscribers since then) 0
December 2005 [35] 15 (United Kingdom, China, Singapore, Australia...) 2 (USA and Canada)
June 2006 [36] 26 (Taiwan, Norway, Canary Islands, Jersey, Greece...) 2
January 2007 [37] 49 (Turkey, Poland, Luxembourg, Russia, Japan...) 2
September 2007 [38] 70 (Peru, Venezuela, South Korea, New Zealand...) 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. Competitors have then been forced to imitate these evolutions but always with fewer destinations included or with an additional price.

Up to march 2005 [34], free of charge telephone calls were limited to unbundled subscribers.

Calls to United States and Canada mobiles are free of charge since december 2005 [35].

In 2006, Free and France Télécom were in conflict against unfair increase of Neuf Cegetel own termination tariffs, aimed at undermining unlimited phone offers in France. French regulator ARCEP then decided to apply a threshold for call termination [39]. Unlimited free phone calls are perennial in France since then.

Telephone services

Telephone services includes a wide range of free of charge services, from Answering machine to Ringback tone customization.

Television

According to a study published in 2008 by Light Reading [40], Free is by a very long way the biggest IPTV carrier in the World [41].

Other services

Corporate affairs

Market share

See also: Internet in France

Free is the third ISP in France. The leader is Orange (former state monopoly company France Télécom) and the second one is Neuf Cegetel. Free was the second ISP up to end June 2007, when competitor Neuf Cegetel acquired Club Internet (T-Online France) 600,000 subscribers[42]. Neuf Cegetel has always had a lower organic growth than Free.

Free's subscribers growth is essentially organic, except the strategic acquisition of the Citéfibre FTTH ISP in 2006 (about 500 subscribers) [31].

Free broadband subscribers and market share since 2002
Year Free Broadband subscribers ADSL subscribers in France Broadband subscribers in France
Bundled Unbundled Total [43] Unbundling ratio Total [44] Free market share Total [44] 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 [45] 475,000 1,120,000 1,595,000 70.2% 8,881,875 17,9% 9,500,000 16,8%
2006 [45] 548,000 1,730,000 2,278,000 75.9% 12,019,000 19.0% 12,700,000 17.9%
2007 [29] 537,000 2,367,000 2,904,000 81.5% 14,741,000 19.7% 15,550,000 18.7%

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[45].

The unbundling ratio is one of the key strategic figures:

Because of bandwidth cost, 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 [46] [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 [30].

Criticism

Culture

Company

Community

See also

External links

Notes and references

  1. ^ a b c d Iliad (2008-03-12). "2007 Results: Press Release" (PDF) (in English). Press release. Retrieved on 2008-03-16.
  2. ^ Iliad (2008-03-12). "2007 Results: Management Report and Analysis" (PDF) (in English). Press release. Retrieved on 2008-03-16.
  3. ^ a b c Iliad (2002-09-19). "Free launches unlimited broadband Internet at dial-up prices" (PDF) (in French). Press release. Retrieved on 2008-03-16.
  4. ^ Iliad (2003-07-31). "Free introduces free telephone calls" (PDF) (in French). Press release. Retrieved on 2008-03-16.
  5. ^ a b Iliad (2003-11-27). "Free launches digital television" (PDF) (in French). Press release. Retrieved on 2008-03-16.
  6. ^ Iliad (2006-04-19). "New HD Freebox Released" (PDF) (in English). Press release. Retrieved on 2008-03-16.
  7. ^ a b Iliad (2008-03-12). "2007 Results: Slide Show" (PDF) (in English). Press release. Retrieved on 2008-03-16.
  8. ^ a b "Internet gratuit : Free, un indépendant sur le marché de la fourniture d'accès" (in French) (1999-04-27). Retrieved on 2008-03-20.
  9. ^ a b Iliad (2002-02-27). "Free, accès en V92" (PDF) (in French). Press release. Retrieved on 2008-02-10.
  10. ^ a b Iliad (2003-12-12). "Free, disponible partout en France" (PDF) (in French). Press release. Retrieved on 2008-02-10.
  11. ^ Iliad (2004-07-27). "Free, 2 Mbit/s minimum sur toute la France" (PDF) (in French). Press release. Retrieved on 2008-02-10.
  12. ^ Iliad (2005-02-09). "Free, jusqu'à 10 Mbit/s pour les non dégroupés" (PDF) (in French). Press release. Retrieved on 2008-02-10.
  13. ^ Iliad (2005-07-20). "Free, jusqu'à 1 Mbit/s en upload pour les non dégroupés" (PDF) (in French). Press release. Retrieved on 2008-03-16.
  14. ^ Iliad (2008-03-20). "Free offers up to 22 Mbps for the same price (29.99 euros a month) in non-unbundled areas" (PDF) (in English). Press release. Retrieved on 2008-03-20.
  15. ^ Iliad (2004-06-04). "Free, jusqu'à 5 Mbit/s" (PDF) (in French). Press release. Retrieved on 2008-02-10.
  16. ^ Iliad (2004-08-24). "Free, jusqu'à 6 Mbit/s" (PDF) (in French). Press release. Retrieved on 2008-02-10.
  17. ^ Iliad (2004-10-20). "Free, jusqu'à 15 Mbit/s grace à l'ADSL2+" (PDF) (in French). Press release. Retrieved on 2008-02-10.
  18. ^ Iliad (2005-01-06). "Free, jusqu'à 20 Mbit/s" (PDF) (in French). Press release. Retrieved on 2008-02-10.
  19. ^ Iliad (2005-11-08). "Free, jusqu'à 24 Mbit/s" (PDF) (in French). Press release. Retrieved on 2008-02-10.
  20. ^ Iliad (2006-07-26). "Free is increasing its Internet bandwidth for unbundled Freebox subscribers, offering speeds up to 28 Mbit/s" (PDF) (in English). Press release. Retrieved on 2008-02-10.
  21. ^ Iliad (2007-06-21). "Freebox: New Broadband Software is Optimizing the Quality of Triple Play Services" (PDF) (in English). Press release. Retrieved on 2008-02-23.
  22. ^ a b Iliad (2006-09-11). "As of the 1st half 2007, Free will market a very high speed optical fibre service for €29.99/month" (PDF) (in English). Press release. Retrieved on 2008-02-17.
  23. ^ a b c d e "Pourquoi Free peine à déployer son réseau de fibre optique" (in French) (2007-10-31). Retrieved on 2008-02-17.
  24. ^ a b c Iliad (2007-08-31). "Free’s FTTH Offer: Internet Access at a Speed of 100 Mbp/s, Telephony and TV Services Available on 2 Televisions for € 29.99 / month" (PDF) (in English). Press release. Retrieved on 2008-02-17.
  25. ^ a b "Free inaugure le FTTH" (in French) (2008-06-26). Retrieved on 2008-06-29.
  26. ^ "Xavier Niel, France’s Broadband Maverick" (in English) (2007-12-21). Retrieved on 2008-02-17.
  27. ^ "Rencontre avec Draka, le fibreur de Free" (in French) (2008-06-20). Retrieved on 2008-06-29.
  28. ^ "La fibre optique se plie aux exigences parisiennes de Free" (in French) (2008-06-30). Retrieved on 2008-07-10.
  29. ^ a b Iliad (2008-02-11). "2007 Revenues" (PDF) (in English). Press release. Retrieved on 2008-02-17.
  30. ^ a b "Interview Thomas Reynaud" (in French) (2008-03-14). Retrieved on 2008-03-16.
  31. ^ a b Iliad (2006-06-21). "Capacity of personal pages hosted by Free now 10 GB" (PDF) (in English). Press release. Retrieved on 2008-02-10.
  32. ^ "ARCEP letter 52" (PDF) (in French). ARCEP. Retrieved on 2008-02-10.
  33. ^ Iliad (2003-07-31). "Free lance la téléphonie gratuite !" (PDF) (in French). Press release. Retrieved on 2008-06-29.
  34. ^ a b Iliad (2004-03-18). "Unlimited Free National and Local Calls for All Free ADSL Subscribers !" (PDF) (in English). Press release. Retrieved on 2008-06-29.
  35. ^ a b Iliad (2005-12-15). "Free Phone Calls to the Most Frequently Called Countries with Freebox" (PDF) (in English). Press release. Retrieved on 2008-06-29.
  36. ^ Iliad (2006-06-11). "Unlimited calls to landline numbers in Guadeloupe and Martinique included in the Freebox package" (PDF) (in English). Press release. Retrieved on 2008-06-29.
  37. ^ Iliad (2007-01-19). "Unlimited calls to landline phones in 20 new international destinations and La Réunion included in the Freebox plan (29.99 euros per month)" (PDF) (in English). Press release. Retrieved on 2008-06-29.
  38. ^ Iliad (2007-09-10). "21 new destinations included in the Freebox package" (PDF) (in English). Press release. Retrieved on 2008-06-29.
  39. ^ Iliad (2006-06-01). "Freebox: final confirmation that calls to landline numbers in France are to be free!" (PDF) (in English). Press release. Retrieved on 2008-07-01.
  40. ^ "French Dominate IPTV Top Ten" (in English) (2008-01-14). Retrieved on 2008-07-10.
  41. ^ "Top Ten IPTV Carriers" (in English) (2008-01-14). Retrieved on 2008-07-10.
  42. ^ Neuf Cegetel (2007-07-02). "Neuf Cegetel Mass Market broadband customers top the 3 million mark" (PDF) (in English). Press release. Retrieved on 2008-02-23.
  43. ^ "Iliad annual reports" (in English). Iliad.
  44. ^ a b "High-speed Internet Observatory" (in English). ARCEP.
  45. ^ a b c Iliad (2007-02-07). "2006 Revenues" (PDF) (in English). Press release. Retrieved on 2008-02-10.
  46. ^ a b c Iliad (2007-10-29). "3Q 2007 Revenues" (PDF) (in English). Press release. Retrieved on 2008-02-10.
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