France Telecom launched phase 3 of its Broadband for Everyone" plan, promising an accelerated rollout of fiber lines to some 2,000 business and industrial parks across France, home to 120,000 large enterprises and smaller businesses. The goal is to provide these business with near term capacity of up to 100 Mbps, and even 1 Gbps for companies located in France's 20 largest cities.
France Telecom, which currently has over two million kilometers of installed fiber, plans to invest an additional EUR 250 million over three years to build an additional 300,000 kilometers of fiber infrastructure. In addition, Gigabit Ethernet loops will be deployed in and around 20 major French cities, allowing services in excess of 1 Gbps. These infrastructures are already available to businesses in the Lille and Paris greater urban areas.
France Telecom's "Broadband For Everyone" program entered its second phase in January 2004, when the company launched an initiative to accelerate broadband deployment across the country.
DSL growth has surged in 2004, with nearly 1.6 million new broadband lines to date. Broadband Internet service has been brought to nearly 5,600 additional towns and cities since January 2004. France Telecom said it is on track to achieve its goal of making broadband available to 90% of the population by the end of 2004. This coverage will be increased to 96% by the end of 2005.
By the end of this year, France Telecom will make the maximum speeds available on all ADSL lines in France. In 2005, ADSL 2+ service will be deployed on the entire France Telecom network, boosting speeds up to 16 Mbps and even higher under optimal configurations. http://www.francetelecom.com
- France Telecom was serving 4.7 million ADSL lines at 30-June-2004 (including unbundled lines and Wanadoo sales), compared with 2.2 million a year earlier. Excluding unbundled lines, ADSL access lines totaled 4 million, versus 2.1 million a year earlier.
