Tag: Internet service

Key Resources – French language

DegroupNews – France map

DegroupTest

Service Providers

Free.fr – Freebox, Alicebox

Orange (France Télécom) – Livebox

Bougyes Télécom – Bbox

SFR – Neufbox

Completel – DartyBox

Introduction

If you have bought or are thinking of buying that chic apartment or holiday home in France, you may also be considering setting up Internet service along with your phone service for that property. Here, it will become very difficult to choose the service that suits your needs because most, if not all, of these services are priced very keenly.

Competitive market

Here, you are dealing with a highly-competitive communications-service market which supports local-loop unbundling or discrete infrastructure to your premises for the Internet services. This applies both to copper-based ADSL services and fibre-optic next-generation broadband services.

It is infact so much so that in most French cities and towns, being equipped with broadband “hot-and-cold running” Internet and unlimited-use landline telephony is considered a “given”.

ADSL technology

If a provider provides local-loop-unbundled access to phone lines in your service area, the area is described in French as a “zone dégroupé” for this provider. This allows the provider to provide the best service available that they can offer to you. It is because they simply have their ADSL equipment in your exchange, with an arrangement for direct access to your phone line’s wiring.

The DegroupNews site has an interactive map of France which allows you to know whether your desired provider provides this kind of access in your town and its sister site DegroupTest allows you to enter in your French location’s telephone number so you can know who can provide the unbundled access to your phone number.

Fibre-optic next-generation broadband

If you are able to have fibre-optic next-generation broadband, this will also come mostly as fibre-to-the-premises but in a competition-enhanced format. Here, you will have a “monofibre” setup with one fibre-optic line from the street to your premises and fibre-optic switches would be used to select which fibre-optic next-generation provider would provide the broadband to your home.

On the other hand, you may have a “multifibre” with fibre-optic lines from each competing infrastructure provider fed to a special multi-input wall socket in your premises. Here, an installer would select the connection that pertains to the service you subscribe to by modifying this wall socket.

Rural broadband Internet

Most rural areas of France will have ADSL Internet provided for by Orange (France Télécom) at least, but there is still work needed to be done with some sparse country areas not having the ability to support the full offering, especially the TV part of the triple-play service.  There is action taking place in some parts of France like Brittany that is being brought about by local and regional governments, with some assistance from Paris as well as business assistance.

It may be worth checking with local government, local chambers of commerce, Orange and local businesses; as well as consulting DegroupNews to find out what is going on for Internet at that “mas en Provence”; mountain home in the Pyrenees, Alps or Massif Centrale; or other country dwelling.

Of course, there is a strong likelihood that the main resort areas lke the Pyrenean and Alpine ski resorts and the main seaside resorts on the French Riviera (Côte D’Azur) like Saint Tropez will be dégroupé (fully unbundled) by the popular operators like Free or SFR.

Triple-play service

Most of these Internet service providers offer a “triple-play” service with broadband Internet, regular landline telephony and multichannel pay TV as a single package. This setup is specifically in the form of a single-pipe triple-play service with all services carried over the one copper or fibre-optic link between your premises and their exchange setup.

Services

Typically, you put down at least 25-30 euros per month for at least 20Mbps ADSL broadband, more TV channels to choose from, and calling anywhere in France at least as part of this cost.

A fully-equipped service with all of the channels on the TV, fibre-optic broadband and inclusive telephone calling to landlines and mobiles in the most-often-called countries in the world would set you back by approximately 40 euros per month.

There are even times when you can’t really call an accurate benchmark price and service mix for telephone and Internet service there because these prices can be keenly honed or services quickly varied for value. This is an example of how keen this competitive communications environment is in France.

The hardware

You would be provided with what is referred to as a “box” which is an Internet gateway device which also houses a VoIP analogue-telephony-adaptor as well as a “décodeur” which is an IPTV / digital-broadcast-TV set-top box. Mostly, these devices would be connected to each other via a HomePlug AV link, known in French as “réseau CPL”.

These Internet gateway devices are typically known as “Livebox”, “Freebox”, “Bbox”, “Neufbox” or some similar marketing name which also applies to the triple-play service you subscribe to and I refer to these services and routers in this article and across HomeNetworking01.info as an “n-box” because of the naming convention used by the carriers.

Increasing you are dealing with carrier-provided home network hardware that is above the ordinary when it comes to anything a telco or ISP would provide as standard for their customers. I would expect the latest incarnations of these devices to be a well-bred 802.11g/n Wi-Fi router with four Ethernet ports and UPnP Internet Gateway Device functionality.

Increasingly, these Internet gateway devices also are capable of being a network-attached storage device when you connect a USB hard disk to them or, in some cases, through the use of an integrated hard disk. If they have this function, they will typically work as an CIFS-compliant network file share as well as a media server for a particular media directory using iTunes (DAAP) or DLNA standards.

Similarly, the set-top boxes would be capable of being DLNA network media clients as well as increasingly becoming personal video recorders. Of course, this hardware is regularly and frequently updated with firmware that adds on extra functionality.

The Freebox Révolution – the best example of these “n-boxes”

One of these devices that I have given a fair bit of airtime to is the Freebox Révolution. Here, I wrote an article on this site about this piece of stunning industrial design which has an integrated Blu-Ray player in its décodeur (set-top box) and works tightly with the Apple ecosystem. For that matter, if you head for this option, you may be in a position to forego the need for a DVD player to go with the flat-screen TV that you intend to hook the Freebox Player to.

Choosing the right triple-play setup for that French property.

Who is it “dégroupé” to?

If you are coming in to France and have bought that “appartément en Paris” or “mas en Provence”, use the map in the DegroupNews website to identify who is covering your area in an unbundled or “dégroupée” state at the moment. You may also have to use the DegroupTest resource if you know your property’s current phone number or the phone number of one or two of your neighbours if you haven’t got phone service on in your location.

The right offers

Then, once you know who has the service under the “dégroupée” conditions, head to the service provider’s Web page and look at what they have to offer. For the telephony packages that come with any of these services, make sure that you have chosen the plan that allows you to make calls to your home country or frequently-called destinations “illimité” i.e. for no extra cost.

As for Internet use, choose the bandwidth that suits your needs, including allowing for use of the IPTV and interactive entertainment services that will be available through your “décodeur” set-top box. These services aren’t metered so there isn’t any worry about a broadband download limit or how much bandwidth you have used.

You also check that you have the TV channel packages that meet your needs, although most of these channels will be available with the shows running in native language audio with French-language subtitles (version originale sous-titres).

Getting the most out of your “n-box”

Firmware updates

All of the “n-boxes” and their corresponding “décodeurs” do undergo frequent and regular firmware updates, most often to accommodate new services and supply new functionality as well as to keep a stable operating environment. Some of them may perform a “blind” update or you perform the update manually by heading to the management Web page (page de gestion) or the Setup Menu and looking for the “mis à jour” or “mettre à jour” option.

Using an UPS to provide telephone-service continuity

A good practice would be to purchase a low-capacity uninterruptable power supply and connect the Livebox, Freebox or similar Internet gateway to that device if you don’t want to lose phone service during a power cut. Here, you may have to purchase a separate “homeplug” for those devices like the Freebox Révolution that use a power supply and “homeplug” module as their power supply and connectivity to the TV.

The best example of these UPS devices that would suit the “n-box” would be the APC ES series UPS units which are like a large thick power strip. Here, you would need to purchase these units in France so that you have the correct French power sockets on the unit and it comes with a proper Continental power plug.

Exploiting the n-box’s integrated NAS functionality

If the “n-box” has NAS functionality, whether with an integrated hard disk or a USB external hard disk that you supply yourself, it is a good idea to exploit this function. Here, you can use the storage capacity as a drop-off point for files that you move or copy between computers via the home network. Similarly, you could dump the latest pictures from your camera to a known directory on the NAS, share it via DLNA and view them using the set-top box or DLNA media app on your tablet.

Property owners who let others use their properties could place electronic copies of the reference material for that house on to the network storage. Then the people who are using these properties can download the material to their laptops or to their smartphones and tablets that are equipped with SMB-compliant file-manager apps.

The “n-box” may support this function with the aid of a USB external hard drive but may not provide enough power to run some of the small USB hard disks on the market. These drives typically have a separate USB connection for power, so you could then plug this USB power connection in to a self-powered USB hub or an AC-USB power supply, which you could pick up from Darty, Carrefour or other similar stores.

But I would still use a regular NAS for applications where the security of your data is concerned such as computer-system backup. This means that you are able to keep your data if you shift between carriers, the “n-box” plays up and the carrier has to replace it, or you move out of your French abode. As well, the regular NAS can handle intense data-sharing applications more readily than the “n-box” as a NAS.

Key terms and words to remember

Conclusion

This guide will help you with planning for and setting up an Internet service for that property that you have or are  dreaming to have in France.

There is a common requirement to improve Internet access in many communities. This may be in the form of extending high-speed broadband out to rural areas or implementing next-generation broadband service around a nation or state. It may also include providing a community of financially-disadvantaged users, such as residents of a public housing estate with computer hardware, Internet access and training.

In most of these improvements, there is the involvement of government in facilitating the rollouts and the funds are derived from the money pools that the government has access to courtesy of the taxes that it raises.

Examples of the projects typically range from a local council implementing a Wi-Fi hotzone in its towns or a regional government funding a fibre-optic rollout in its area of responsibility to a national government subsidising Internet rollout projects across the country.

I have covered instances where action concerning Internet-accessibility improvement has been assisted with public money of some sort, such as improvements in Gironde and Vaucluse in France; and many other rural-broadband improvements in the UK.

Here, the question that is often raised is whether such operations should be funded by this public money and assisted by these government entities. This is typically raised by conservative organisations who prefer that little public money be spent on this kind of service delivery and would prefer that this is the responsibility of a private free market.

The free-market argument

The free-market argument underscores the fact that the public money is the “property of the taxpayer” and that government shouldn’t waste their money on these Internet-improvement projects. Instead they would rather that market forces determine the kind of Internet service that is provided.

Similarly the free-market no-public-money argument also underscores a rationale that the money to assist Internet deployment in underserved areas could be better spent on other services like health or road / rail infrastructure. There is also the fear that taxes will be increased in the area so as to cover the Internet-deployment project.

Limitations

This may be OK if there is a vibrant competitive Internet-service market in every part of the country. But where there is a monopoly or cartel managing the Internet service for an area, there can be problems with a totally free-market approach.

For example, it is easier to fail to serve communities based on perceived lack of short-term profitability. This can be aided by various personal prejudices like fear of serving neighbourhoods dominated by minorities. With this, there is less of a likelihood of catering to a changing customer mix in a community. This is more so if the change involves establishing infrastructure in a community where there could be new perceived demand, such as a neighbourhood that has been gentrified or has acquired a new employer.

Infact some of the incumbent monopoly operators in the US have been known to cry foul and organise PR and legal campaigns against municipal hotzone efforts. This is because they fear that the Internet service offered by the hotzone is to provide a competing service and undermine their monopoly over their operating area.

Why use public money

The use of public money to provide proper Internet service to underserved communities is effectively a “leg-up” for private Internet providers to provide the service to these communities.  This is especially where they wouldn’t find this kind of operation profitable especially in the short-term.

Common public-money sources for Internet-service provision

Local government

I also find that the local government is in a better position to underpin local projects because they know what the local needs are. They are infact more representative of the local community and are dependent on a primary income base – the council rates or taxes — that is sensitive to local area value. Here a high-quality Internet service can attract a high-value employer which will raise the area’s effective value and income base.

Universal-service funds

Another public money source that is relevant to Internet-service improvement are universal-service funds. These are funds that are provided to communications companies and utilities to offset the cost of difficult service rollouts in order to provide a baseline level of service to all communities.

These funds may be resourced from a standard levy charged to all customers for the provision of their service, another tax base like the TV licence fee in the UK or a line of spending in a government’s budget. But these service funds would be specifically allocated for providing the communications service to the community. They are typically underscored by laws that define a minimum standard for Internet service through the nation in a similar manner to what is implemented for the telephone.

But there are other sources such as baseline federal assistance for communications and technology enrichment projects as well as international funding from multi-nation groups like the European Commission.

Public-Private Partnerships

The projects would be typically rolled out in a public-private partnership where the telco or ISP finance some of the project’s costs while the public funds finance the rest of the project’s costs.

They are exemplified through entities who represent the government and the private operatiors and are responsible for managing the project and tendering out the work that is necessary for it to go ahead. What is important about them is that the projects are subject to value-for-money tests yet have exposure to the benefits of free-market competition and the public money goes a long way towards the project with less drain on the public budget.

Conclusion

What i value is that public money can be used to assist in improving Internet access for disadvantaged communities or establishing a newer Internet technology with minimal private risk.

Article

BBC News – How will we benefit from super-fast broadband? (Audio – radio interview)

My Comments

I have listened to a BBC Radio 5 Live radio broadcast that was available on-demand from the BBC Website about how we will benefit from the next-generation broadband Internet technology that is being rolled out now.

The BBC Radio 5 Live interview compared the current situation with what happened 10 years ago when broadband “hot-and-cold running Internet” came on the scene. At that time, the primary method of connection to the Internet was dial-up, typically with a second PSTN phone line for Internet use. The primary personal Internet applications were emailing and Web surfing, with some instant-messaging thrown in. There were questions about whether we needed the higher bandwidth of the always-on broadband services or not.

Nowadays, the norm for Internet connectivity is an “always-on” broadband service of at least 1Mbps, more like 2Mbps and we are doing more with these services. Here we are using the Social Web, with services like Facebook and Twitter; as well as multimedia-driven computing applications like YouTube and IPTV / Web video. It would also include IP-driven telephony applications like VoIP including Skype; where you benefit from low-cost long-distance telephone calls, FM-grade voice telephony and the arrival of the videophone which was only thought of in science fiction.

This is although there is a persistent group of naysayers who continue to doubt the need for next-generation broadband. They would reckon that the current technology would satisfy current usage needs. Personally, I have seen the effects of Moore’s Law where the capacity increases and the cost decreases for a technology, thus opening up new applications or enhancing the experience of current applications.

One main application group that the broadcast talked of as being feasible with super-fast broadband was health and well-being applications mainly in the form of telehealth services. This included the idea of “independent ageing” which I would see as a reality as people live longer and the age-associated degradation takes longer to set in.

Personally, I would find that as the next-generation broadband Internet services light up in many neighbourhoods, it will be more about an enhanced and rich Internet experience.

Article – in German language

Breitbandanschlüsse für Königsbrunn – VDSL kommt

My comments and English summary of this article

Now Königsbrunn in Bavaria, Germany is to receive VDSL next-generation broadband Internet service, which means that it is time to make sure that the FritzBox that you plan to use in that town can now work with VDSL2 technology.

Just lately, the “groundbreaking” or “turning the first sod” ceremony took place in that town for the works that were associated with the extension of the network infrastructure for this service.

The work will initially cover the southern side of the town which is the newly-developed industrial zone, with a goal to have the area “wired up” and running by 2012. This infrastructure is expected to pass around 380 subscribers in that neighbournood. The next target will be to cover the north of the city but this will be a difficult assignment with the old established buildings and infrastructure that has existed before.

Money has come to this project from the local government (33000€) and the Bayern (Bavaria) state government (78000€) This is although there is a federal grant to local government of €100000 for next-generation-broadband projects, which is part of the goal to have 3 out of 4 German households to have access to this technology.

This effort was summed up by a comment by the Kónigsbrunn mayor — “To be viable in the future”, which is something to be thought of with the planning of these technologies.

I would say that this applies to neighbourhoods in many ways such as a town attracting larger employers or households also becoming workplaces such as the “teleworking / telecommuting” practices or creation of micro-businesses that benefit from the Internet.

Article

The ABC’s of Understanding Internet Service Providers | Internet Service Providers.org

Web site

InternetServiceProviders.org

My Comments

I was sent an email about this article at InternetServiceProviders.Org which is a new “at-a-glance” Internet-service directory for the USA. It outlines the common terms that will bamboozle people when they buy Internet service; especially as they read, listen to or watch the advertising that the ISPs will run.

But I have always and will always advise Internet customers to consider multi-service deals which encompass regular or mobile telephony, and / or multi-channel pay TV as well as the broadband Internet. This is especially more so if you already have an ongoing telephone or pay-TV service and you want to start purchasing Internet service.

One thing that I would like to see from this site is a continual news feed about situations that will affect retail Internet service in the US. This includes service-provider behaviour like recent Comcast issues; the provisioning of improved Internet service such as fibre-optic Internet or efforts to bring broadband to rural areas.

What is the “Family House”?

The “Family house” is typically a  house, that is usually resided in by one or two older parents where the children have “left the nest”. The adult children and their grandchildren regularly visit this house to see the parents and, in most cases, they stay in this house on a temporary basis. In a lot of situations, family friends will end up visiting or staying over at this house in the company of the family members.

Such situations typically include the children who normally are out of town coming in to town for business, leisure or to attend family events; the children seeking temporary accommodation while their house is being built or renovated, or are between houses. It may also include the “family house” being close to a place of study which a grandchild is enrolled at and the grandchild stays there while completing a course of study. As well, the parents typically end up caring for the very young grandchildren in this house while their children work or undertake other activities.

This concept may also extend to any occasional-use accommodation that the family shares responsibility in maintaining, like city apartments or holiday / seasonal houses. In the latter situation, a household or the whole family ends up staying in this accommodation.

Common practice with IT at these locations

Compaq Presario CQ42 entry-level laptop

In these places, there may not be an intention to have full Internet service at these houses because the main householder may not be a regular Internet user. But what can happen is that other people in the house make regular use of the Internet. This would typically be achieved through each device that other people bring in using a mobile-broadband service for their Internet.

A small number of portable devices that someone owns can be served with this kind of Internet connection using a “Mi-Fi” mobile router or a smartphone that implements a “personal hotspot” mode.

A significant cost difference

But this may only work best with one rarely-used device on the premises. This is because most of the wireless-broadband services work on bandwidth that is narrower than wireline broadband services like cable-modem or ADSL services.

As well, the tariff charts for these services are typically more expensive than most of the wireline broadband services. Here, you end up paying more for the same bandwidth allowance and usage quota than you would for a cable or ADSL broadband service of equivalent standard or, for the same money you pay for a wireless-broadband service, you would obtain more bandwidth and usage quota.

Should I establish the full home network here?

It would be worth it to establish the full home network with a fixed broadband service if there is at least one Internet terminal that is used regularly by at least one of the parents, a relative or another regular houseguest. The Internet terminal, which can be a desktop, “all-in-one” or laptop / notebook computer or a tablet MID like the iPad, can be either owned by the parent or a regular houseguest like the grandchild who is staying regularly at that location.

The Internet deals commonly available

The common marketing practices amongst most wireline broadband Internet providers who run a voice telephony or multichannel pay-TV service is to offer a sweet deal where the customer benefits from reduced service costs if they have their telephony or TV service provisioned by this Internet provider. Some of these deals are provided as “triple-play” packages especially if all services come through the one physical line.

If you are in a highly competitive Internet-service market like UK, Australia or France, you may find these deals being offered at some very attractive prices that make you not even think twice about signing up.

I often suggest that people take advantage of these abovementioned offers when choosing their Internet service for these locations because this may help with saving money on this service. These deals will usually be advertised in brochures that accompany the regular bill for the phone or pay-TV service that they currently are subscribed to.

In some houses where there are older people who don’t use the internet frequently, one or more younger people who make use of the Internet could incite the older people to make increased use of the Internet. This can be done by the younger person sharing their computer with them, demonstrating various Internet and computing skills and assisting the older person with these skills.

As well, you may find that there are new media paths being opened up by a home network associated with a wireline Internet service in the “family house”. Examples of this include use of Internet radios that pick up the Web feeds of overseas and obscure radio stations as well as access to Internet TV through the use of a compatible TV or set-top box and music, pictures or video on-demand through the house with cost-effective equipment.

It also includes the like of Netflix or Spotify as content services; along with TV stations offering catch-up / video-on-demand services that can even be viewed through the big-screen TV with an appropriate set-top box.

Who should bear the extra costs

Issues that may come up include whether the houseguests like the children should cover any extra costs associated with use of a full broadband Internet service at the “family house” if the main householder isn’t the one using that service. This may be of little impact to the guests because the wireline broadband services will be relatively cheaper than running a wireless broadband service which just services one computer.

Establishing the full home network

The network-Internet “edge”

Netgear DG834G ADSL2 wireless router

You may have to make sure that you use a wireless router if you have a laptop computer or other portable Internet device on the premises as the network-Internet “edge”. Most of these devices are for sale at very affordable prices and you could get one through your Internet service provider as part of your broadband Internet deal. As well, I have written a buyer’s guide about the entry-level wireless routers. The limitation with most of the units supplied by your Internet service provider is that they may yield average performance and may not offer the functionality as a retail-supplied unit.

Assuring proper wireless coverage

Some houses that have interior walls made out of double-brick or stone may have problems when it comes to operating a wireless network. This is something I have touched on in this Website many times and can be handled with an auxiliary access point installed in the area where wireless-network coverage is below par and connected to the router via an Ethernet or HomePlug wired backbone as explained here.

Or pay attention to newer distributed-WiFi setups that are increasingly being offered by many network-hardware manufacturers and Internet service providers. They will have a router and at least another access-point module and are designed to be simple to set up and manage and spread the Wi-Fi coverage around the house. Most of these setups rely on you using a particular range of equipment offered by the same manufacturer but pay attention to devices that are compatible with Wi-Fi EasyMesh technology. These will allow you to use equipment offered by different manufacturers as long as it works to this standard. If you are in Australia and sign up to fixed broadband service through Telstra, you may find that your Smart Modem Generation 2 modem-router that they supply you supports Wi-Fi EasyMesh.

It is also worth knowing about how to encompass outbuildings like bungalows in to the scope of the home network, a reality which will be of importance for country or outer-urban properties. Here, I have written a good feature article on how to achieve this goal in a manner that is best suited to your particular scenario.

Printers

As well, when you need to install or upgrade the printer, you may need to go for a unit that has network connectivity of some sort. If the main computer device happens to be a tablet computer, you may have to look at a printer that is supported by an app or the tablet’s operating system. You may also have to make sure your printer supports AirPrint and Mopria driver-free printing functionality so it can print from mobile devices running iOS or Android.

Brother DCP-J562DW multi-function printer

You don’t have to have a machine with all the “bells and whistles” if it is not going to be used regularly – here an economy-level network capable printer may just suffice. Even so, you should prefer a printer that uses separate colour cartridges rather than the tri-colour cartridge because you won’t be wasting colour ink if one colour runs out.

There is an exception if the house has a regularly-used fax machine. Here, you could replace the fax machine with a network-enabled multifunction printer which has integrated fax capabilities. Again, these would be much more cheaper to run than the typical older “thermal-belt-driven” fax machines that some households still consider as fax machines.

Network-attached storage devices

It may be worth considering the purchase of a one-disk network-attached-storage device at a later time as the network is used more. This may allow for pooling of common files like driver files for various peripherals as well as a backup storage for data held on one or more of the computers.

As well, most of these devices provide media-server functionality for Apple iTunes and standards-based DLNA setups so that your pictures, videos and music can be “pulled up” on demand. This may work well as a central media store which can be used as a way of “offloading” the media from a computer’s hard disk or making it available to everyone at all times without the need to have a computer on all the time.

This function will become more relevant as more consumer AV equipment becomes equipped with some form of network connectivity and is able to play or show AV content from the Internet or media servers like these network-attached storage devices. Infact I have covered this topic very heavily on this site and you can look at this article here as it pertains to these devices as media servers.

Conclusion

I would recommend that you look at the value of providing a full home network with wireline broadband service to the “family house” if you notice that there is a strong likelihood of regular Internet use there.

Updates

This article has been updated on September 2020 to encompass newer trends affecting Internet at the “family bouse” including distributed Wi-Fi setups, more online audio and video and printers supporting AirPrint and Mopria.