[CAnet - news] More on Chirac and Fiber to every home in France

[I received an incredible amount of email correspondence with respect to
this original posting from Dirk van der Woude.  First of all I want to make
it clear that am not against the concept of a nation FTTH initiative. I
applaud President Chirac's vision and initiative. But I would be concerned
if France Telecom is tasked with the project.  They are not the most
enlightened telco and I think would be tempted to build a very traditional
PON(zi) architecture. An architecture that encouraged facilities based
competition and perhaps even some customer owned fiber would make more sense
to my mind. I have included several good additional comments from Dirk van
der Woude, David Allen, Frank van Iersel and Christophe Py.  Thanks to all
-- BSA]

>From Dirk van der Woude....


1) The text of Chirac's speech is now available at the 
    site of Elysee palace (and in case of broken link
    pasted below)
http://www.elysee.fr/elysee/francais/interventions/discours_et_declarations/
2006/janvier/allocution_du_president_de_la_republique_a_l_occasion_des_voeux
_aux_forces_vives.37533.html

2) I would never have thought I would see the day on which 
    M. Chirac would be heard and seen to speak the words 
    "fibere optique"
    Today is that day, as the Elysee has posted movies of
    his speech (WMV as well as QT - same link as above)

    A good starting point is minute 12:40 seconds, where
    the president starts speaking about internet, fiber etc.
    One of his conclusions: 'Now 98% of all French can use 
    DSL - the more reason to go much further. Which brings 
    me to our new strategy: very high speed & fiber in all
    of France.'

3) I was still puzzling on what on earth would be those
    "forces vives", the group Chirac was speaking to.
    Keywords cam to the rescue: the public was none 
    other than the combined French elite of (big) business,
    banks, investors, trade unions etc. 

    Considering the statements of the socialist Paris Mayor 
    one may get the suspicion that some of the broadest 
    kinds of public support are created - or allready there. 

    Attached a listing of the (very) many French broadband
    projects in which local and/or department government
    are participating, subsidizing, investing and the like. 
    Many times the national, 100% state owned, investment
    bank Caisse des Impost is involved as well.
 
   Something is happening, for sure.

-----------------------------------------------------------------
>From David Allen.......

Minitel won for a decade and more.  And the French had services that 
no one else did, for quite a long time.

If they were too slow to switch, when the time came, that in  no way 
negates their triumph - and the advantages to their society for a 
long period - at the time.

Such a dynamic view, across history, is essential, if we are to have 
accurate analysis.  It very much applies going forward, where the US 
almost surely is going to lag others, in fiber, for some while.

If you go to IDATE's latest conference report, form November, you 
will see a general gathering of steam, toward FTTH in Europe.  I had 
a comment from the Danish regulator as far back as last summer, that 
Denmark was at least considering some society-wide steps (by no means 
certain at the time).  It looks like there are going to be several 
more in Europe, not so far off.

The list of IDATE presentations is at 
http://www.idate.org/jii05/intervenantsUK.php .  For the broadband 
seminar, scroll down to The Very High Speed Challenge.  Note their 
"NB : Proceedings are available by clicking on the speakers' name 
with blinking arrow."  Once inside a speaker page, the presentation 
will be linked on the right, often under photo.  Francisco FUENTES 
presents a fairly interesting sweep across the world.  There is also 
a whole other bband seminar, though with different slant.

(For reference, also supposed to be video from the event, sessions 
(?) and interviews, available here
	http://www.satellite-multimedia.com/satellite/index.htm
and here
	http://www.telecommagazine.com/Article.asp?Id=AR_1337 )

-----------------------------------------------------------

>From Frank van Iersel

Thank you for your mail on President Chirac: "Fiber to the Home in all
ofFrance - as soon as possible".

I think the comparison between Minitel and the Internet leads to a very
unfair remark. It sounds like ridiculizing the railways for not having
chosen the air trafic in 1870. It suggests that both network approaches were
in a way in competition in those days, or that at that time technlogy and
market would have offered a viable alternative for Minitel. The idea of
Minitel was developed in the mid '70's by France Telecom. I remember still
very well the confidential briefing session organised by France Telecom that
I have attended in Paris somewhere around 1977. The Minitel was an
impressive and very bold step.This was the general opinion of the
international audience. The main objective and economic justification of
Minitel was the replacement of the very inefficient French Telephone
Directory. I aimed at a kind of general availlable www-functionality  for
French end-users, obviously within the market conditions of that time and
with the available technology, which allowed ony dumb terminals, if you
would target the main public which Minitel successfuly did.

As happens often, lateron the Minitel was bypassed by new technologies, that
could benefit from the increasing availability of PC's and the IP-standards.
I do not remember that someone at that time did suggest that the Internet
would become available for the general public. You might reproach France
Telecom for not seeing early enough the benefits of the new
Internet-developments, but this happens often with previous front runners.
So did Digital not see the potiential of the PC.

May I remark as well  that the characterization of the Internet as a 'grass
root users development' is a very selective one. People easily forget that
the Internet is also a direct result from the DoD initiatives as the Arpanet
which was heavily supported by politicians and hardly invented by grass root
users.

--------------------------------------------------------------------

>From Christophe Py

While the news of France Telecom being tasked with the deployment of fibres
to every French home leaves me rather indifferent, I was not amused to read
your characterisation of the Minitel as a fiasco nor convinced that the
parallel has any merit. 

Minitel allowed French citizens to book theatre and train tickets and bank
on-line 20 years before the internet (at the very beginning of the 80s). At
4800 bit/sec it may have had a pathetic transmission rate, but as a resident
of France at the time I can tell you that it did the job, at no cost to the
user, of transferring useful information without the distraction of unwanted
commercials, cookies and spyware. It couldn't possibly have been used to
download music or maps (which I don't think make any money anyhow), but it
was certainly a successful early technological demonstration of electronic
commerce.

No politician was aware of the rise of Internet as a potential tool for the
public at large in the 80s, so they couldn't possibly have decided to wait
for the superior Internet to mature rather than buy into available Minitel
technology. Rather, I would argue that electronic commerce was not even on
the radar screen of most politicians, so if Minitel didn't catch up in other
countries, it certainly has to do with politics and not technology. 

Chirac's announcement, by contrast to the development of Minitel by France
Telecom, is certainly not breaking new technological ground, but attempting
to lead where every country is going in the distribution of available
technology. That this politically-driven program may turn into a fiasco is
entirely possible. To say that Minitel was a technological fiasco is
entirely false.

Christophe Py


====================

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