Ambitious French alternative carrier Free and incumbent telco France Telecom/Orange look bent on slugging it out for leadership in France’s embryonic fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) market.

Last week Free (part of the Iliad Group) put further flesh on its plans to build a fibre network to serve 2mn Parisian users (click) with the announcement that it had selected Ethernet FTTH (E-FTTH) as its preferred technology and Cisco as its supplier. As well as Cisco E-FTTH technology, which Free believes will be a key market differentiator, the triple-play company is also to use the US company’s Internet Protocol Next Generation Network (IP NGN) architecture.

“We are building a network of the future for our users and by working with Cisco, we can bring the future closer. With the ongoing debate about fibre access platforms, we have made a clear choice and decided on Ethernet point-to-point FTTH architecture because it is future-proof and maximises return on such an important infrastructure investment,” offered Free ceo Michaël Boukobza. “Other options would not have set us so clearly apart from the competition. By taking fibre optic links directly to the home, we can be sure that France will continue to be at the forefront in technology and applications for the next few years, and even the next few decades.”

Not to be outdone rival France Telecom/Orange detailed its own FTTH plans last week. France Telecom said the early stage deployment phase of its network will run from 2007 to 2008, with the aim of having 150,000 to 200,000 customers connected by the end of 2008 out of a potential client base of 1mn The range of services offered as of 2007 will include Internet access with symmetrical speeds of up to 100Mbits/s, several high-definition TV and PC channels, and unlimited telephone calls. These services will be launched in March 2007 in Paris and several neighbouring regions, before being rolled out from June 2007 to a dozen cities, including Lille, Lyon, Marseille, Poitiers and Toulouse. Total investment over the two years is estimated at €270mn.

After 2008, though, things get a little ‘through a glass darkly’ for France Telecom. In a statement the telco argued that the development of a very high speed broadband for the mass market would require certain adaptations by equipment suppliers, operators and content and service providers. The Group reckons it will take at least two years before this adaptation process is complete, thereby permitting very high speed broadband to become available to the mass market.

And, in an echo of the utterances of other incumbents such as Deutsche Telekom and Telstra, there’s also just the tiniest suggestion that France Telecom’s FTTH investment plans might change if the national regulatory regime hardened, although the company’s statement did say that the regulatory environment “…is well on the way to being clarified.”
John Williamson