[1st-mile-nm] Paris Fiber Network

[Richard Lowenberg]

Paris Fiber

Like some of you, I pay attention to new 'open' fiber projects as they
manifest in the U.S. and elsewhere.   Paris and Amsterdam are beginning to
deploy extensive, urban, 'open' fiber systems and services.   Here's an
update on Paris.   It's not New Mexico, but lots of lessons to be learned.
rl
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www.lightreading.com/document.asp?doc_id=137586&f_src=lightreading_gnews

Iliad Tempers Its FTTH Target

Ray Le Maistre, International News Editor, Light Reading
OCTOBER 29, 2007

Iliad (Euronext: ILD - message board) is aiming to pass 241,000 Parisian
homes with its FTTH (fiber-to-the-home) offer by the end of this year,
about 30 percent fewer than originally planned, the French competitive
operator said today.

Iliad, which provides triple-play services under its Free brand, announced
in March this year that it planned to pass 350,000 homes in Paris and a
further 150,000 homes in Montpellier, Lyon, Valenciennes, and some Paris
suburbs, by the end of this year at a cost of 150 million (US$216
million). [Ed. note: Free actually charges money for its services. Go
figure.] In total, Iliad aims to pass 4 million French homes by the end of
2012, a rollout that will cost around 1 billion ($1.44 billion). (See
Iliad Updates on FTTH, 3G and Iliad Plans 1B FTTH Build.)

Now, though, the company has cut back its year-end Paris target by 109,000
homes. Iliad's new target is to have eight fiber access nodes operational
by the end of the year capable of serving 241,000 homes with a triple-play
service that promises up to 100 Mbit/s downstream and 50 Mbit/s upstream,
free in-country VOIP calls, and more than 100 channels of IPTV for 29.99
($43.25) per month, the same price as its current ADSL2+ package.

Rollout also appears to be a few months behind the original schedule
outside Paris, too. For example, Iliad says it has begun the civil works
in Valenciennes, a town of more than 400,000 residents in northeast
France, but that service will not be available until the second quarter of
next year.

In terms of FTTH capex for this year, the company says only that it had
committed more than 100 million ($144 million) by the end of August.

Iliad, one of a number of carriers building out fiber access networks in
France, is also being less bullish about the number of actual FTTH
subscribers it believes it can sign up by the end of the year.

Each quarter, the operator publishes a set of year-end operating goals,
which has in the past included having 30,000 fiber access customers by the
end of 2007. That target no longer features in the company's stated goals:
Iliad had not responded to questions about that particular target as this
article was published.

While the operator didn't respond to questions about a slower initial
rollout, it's believed that Iliad has faced some slight delays in finding
premises in which to house the active Ethernet access equipment that will
provide a dedicated fiber link to each subscriber. Another industry
executive suggests that mainland Europe's FTTH pioneers may also be
struggling to find enough experienced staff to deploy the new access
equipment.

Those factors seem to be short-term issues, though. Iliad has been an
aggressive rival to incumbent France Telecom SA (NYSE: FTE - message
board) for more than four years now and has built itself, and maintained,
a fixed broadband share of around 20 percent by planning and executing a
succession of service rollouts, of which fiber access is the latest, while
keeping its prices and costs low. As a result, the operator looks likely
to be a significant contributor to Europe's growing FTTH user base.

(snip)



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Richard Lowenberg
P.O.Box 8001, Santa Fe, NM 87504
505-989-9110,  505-603-5200 cell

New Mexico Broadband Initiative
www.1st-mile.com/newmexico
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