Free (French ISP) - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Free is a French ISP

Internet service provider

An Internet service provider is a company that provides access to the Internet. Access ISPs directly connect customers to the Internet using copper wires, wireless or fiber-optic connections. Hosting ISPs lease server space for smaller businesses and host other people servers...

, which is a subsidiary of Iliad

Iliad (company)

Iliad S.A. is a French provider of telecommunication services. It is based in Paris and its operations comprise fixed telephony services, prepaid phone cards and internet access providing and hosting services. The company was founded by Xavier Niel in 1999....

. It operates in France.

It was the first company to offer a "triple play

Triple play (telecommunications)

In telecommunications, triple play service is a marketing term for the provisioning of two bandwidth-intensive services, high-speed Internet access and television, and a less bandwidth-demanding service, telephone, over a single broadband connection. Triple play focuses on a combined business...

" service in France, through its self-produced singular Freebox

Freebox

The Freebox is an ADSL modem that the French internet service provider named Free provides to its ADSL subscribers.Its main use is as a high-end wireless modem , but it also allows Free to offer added services using ADSL as support, like HD television , video recording with timeshifting...

set-top box

Set-top box

A set-top box or set-top unit is an information appliance device that generally contains a tuner and connects to a television set and an external source of signal, turning the signal into content which is then displayed on the television screen or other display device.-History:Before the...

. It claims to be the first company to have invented the box
Set-top box
A set-top box or set-top unit is an information appliance device that generally contains a tuner and connects to a television set and an external source of signal, turning the signal into content which is then displayed on the television screen or other display device.-History:Before the...

marketing concept in France, in reference to all the other French ISP

Internet service provider

s, who thereafter released "triple play" modem

Modem

A modem is a device that modulates an analog carrier signal to encode digital information, and also demodulates such a carrier signal to decode the transmitted information. The goal is to produce a signal that can be transmitted easily and decoded to reproduce the original digital data...

s named to include the anglicism

Anglicism

An Anglicism, as most often defined, is a word borrowed from English into another language. "Anglicism" also describes English syntax, grammar, meaning, and structure used in another language with varying degrees of corruption.-Anglicisms in Chinese:...

box as a suffix. These boxes provide comprehensive telecommunication services, such as high-speed internet

Broadband

The term broadband refers to a telecommunications signal or device of greater bandwidth, in some sense, than another standard or usual signal or device . Different criteria for "broad" have been applied in different contexts and at different times...

, telephone and digital television

IPTV

Internet Protocol television is a system through which television services are delivered using the Internet protocol suite over a packet-switched network such as the Internet, instead of being delivered through traditional terrestrial, satellite signal, and cable television formats.IPTV services...

packages, leading to Free becoming the world's number one IPTV provider, through almost systematic offering of IPTV to its subscriber and optimising it to be available on most landlines. Free is recognized as the broadband innovations driver in France, and as the driver of competitive ISP offers in France and in the 30 OECD countries.

1999–2001: Network building and voiceband

Free was the third ISP

Internet service provider

in France to offer Internet

Internet

The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet protocol suite to serve billions of users worldwide...

access without a subscription or a surcharged phone number, on 26 April 1999. Unlike its predecessors in the niche of access without subscription (World Online

World Online

World Online was a European Internet Service Provider which came to prominence in the late 1990s dotcom boom.Founded by Dutch entrepreneur Nina Brink, World Online's name indicated its aspiration to rival the hugely successful American ISP, AOL . The company aimed to provide free internet access...

on 1999-04-01 and Freesurf on 1999-04-19), Free's offer was not restricted in time or number of subscribers.

In 2002, Free was the first ISP

Internet service provider

to provide a V.92

56K modem

56k modems are voiceband modems nominally capable of download speeds up to 56 kbit/s . In the late 1990s, they were the most popular access method for personal Internet usage, but their use had declined as broadband technologies such as DSL gained wider availability.-Speed:The 56 kbit/s...

connection.

Free dial-up offer milestones
Date	Technology	Down IP Internet Protocol The Internet Protocol is the principal communications protocol used for relaying datagrams across an internetwork using the Internet Protocol Suite...	Up IP Internet Protocol The Internet Protocol is the principal communications protocol used for relaying datagrams across an internetwork using the Internet Protocol Suite...
1999-04-26	Voiceband Voiceband In electronics, voiceband means the typical human hearing frequency range that is from 20 Hz to 20 kHz. In telephony, it means the frequency range normally transmitted by a telephone line, generally about 200–3600 Hz. Frequency-division multiplexing in telephony normally uses...	33.6 kbit/s	33,6 kbit/s
2002-02-27	V.92	56 kbit/s	33,6 kbit/s

2002-2003: ADSL at a disruptive price

Since September 2002, Free contributed significantly to French ADSL boom. The offer was able to launch as soon as the incumbent was forced to stop abuse of dominant position and to apply fair wholesale prices.

Free bundled ADSL offer milestones
Date	Technology	Down ATM Asynchronous Transfer Mode Asynchronous Transfer Mode is a standard switching technique designed to unify telecommunication and computer networks. It uses asynchronous time-division multiplexing, and it encodes data into small, fixed-sized cells. This differs from approaches such as the Internet Protocol or Ethernet that...	Up ATM Asynchronous Transfer Mode Asynchronous Transfer Mode is a standard switching technique designed to unify telecommunication and computer networks. It uses asynchronous time-division multiplexing, and it encodes data into small, fixed-sized cells. This differs from approaches such as the Internet Protocol or Ethernet that...
2002-09-19	ADSL Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line Asymmetric digital subscriber line is a type of digital subscriber line technology, a data communications technology that enables faster data transmission over copper telephone lines than a conventional voiceband modem can provide. It does this by utilizing frequencies that are not used by a voice...	512 kbit/s	128 kbit/s
2003-12-12	ADSL Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line Asymmetric digital subscriber line is a type of digital subscriber line technology, a data communications technology that enables faster data transmission over copper telephone lines than a conventional voiceband modem can provide. It does this by utilizing frequencies that are not used by a voice...	1024 kbit/s	128 kbit/s
2004-07-27	ADSL Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line Asymmetric digital subscriber line is a type of digital subscriber line technology, a data communications technology that enables faster data transmission over copper telephone lines than a conventional voiceband modem can provide. It does this by utilizing frequencies that are not used by a voice...	2048 kbit/s	128 kbit/s
2005-02-09	ADSL Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line Asymmetric digital subscriber line is a type of digital subscriber line technology, a data communications technology that enables faster data transmission over copper telephone lines than a conventional voiceband modem can provide. It does this by utilizing frequencies that are not used by a voice...	10 Mbit/s	320 kbit/s
2005-07-20	ADSL Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line Asymmetric digital subscriber line is a type of digital subscriber line technology, a data communications technology that enables faster data transmission over copper telephone lines than a conventional voiceband modem can provide. It does this by utilizing frequencies that are not used by a voice...	10 Mbit/s	1 Mbit/s
2008-03-20	ADSL2+	22 Mbit/s	1 Mbit/s

2004-2006: Unbundled ADSL and "triple play"

Unbundling, in France, refers to the obligation for the incumbent carrier France Telecom

France Télécom

France Telecom S.A. is the main telecommunications company in France, the third-largest in Europe and one of the largest in the world. It currently employs about 180,000 people and has 192.7 million customers worldwide . In 2010 the group had revenue of €45.5 billion...

to lease the Local loop

Local loop

In telephony, the local loop is the physical link or circuit that connects from the demarcation point of the customer premises to the edge of the carrier or telecommunications service provider's network...

, because it is a natural monopoly

Natural monopoly

A monopoly describes a situation where all sales in a market are undertaken by a single firm. A natural monopoly by contrast is a condition on the cost-technology of an industry whereby it is most efficient for production to be concentrated in a single form...

. Although the unbundling process was intended to start by 2000, the actual unbundling process actually started at the end of 2002, after a long conflict between the French regulation authority ARCEP and the non-cooperative incumbent.

Free has to pay a rental fee of 9€ per month and per subscriber to the incumbent for the Twisted pair

Twisted pair

Twisted pair cabling is a type of wiring in which two conductors are twisted together for the purposes of canceling out electromagnetic interference from external sources; for instance, electromagnetic radiation from unshielded twisted pair cables, and crosstalk between neighboring pairs...

of Copper

Copper

Copper is a chemical element with the symbol Cu and atomic number 29. It is a ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. Pure copper is soft and malleable; an exposed surface has a reddish-orange tarnish...

between the area central office

Telephone exchange

In the field of telecommunications, a telephone exchange or telephone switch is a system of electronic components that connects telephone calls...

and the subscriber premises

Demarcation point

In telephony, the demarcation point is the point at which the public switched telephone network ends and connects with the customer's on-premises wiring. It is the dividing line which determines who is responsible for installation and maintenance of wiring and equipment -- customer/subscriber, or...

. Although more expensive than the real cost of 7.63€, this solution is still far more profitable than the bundled option.

Since January 2003, a Freenaut has maintained an unofficial website showing figures and graphics about Free unbundled network deployment (Free Unbundling ). Another Freenaut website has provided network status monitoring maps (Unbundling status and location ) since the end of 2003. These initiatives are made possible thanks to the transparency of Free's network: their equipment replies to ping

Ping

Ping is a computer network administration utility used to test the reachability of a host on an Internet Protocol network and to measure the round-trip time for messages sent from the originating host to a destination computer...

and has a meaningful reverse DNS

Reverse DNS lookup

In computer networking, reverse DNS lookup or reverse DNS resolution is the determination of a domain name that is associated with a given IP address using the Domain Name System of the Internet....

Free unbundled ADSL offer milestones
Date	Technologies	Down ATM Asynchronous Transfer Mode Asynchronous Transfer Mode is a standard switching technique designed to unify telecommunication and computer networks. It uses asynchronous time-division multiplexing, and it encodes data into small, fixed-sized cells. This differs from approaches such as the Internet Protocol or Ethernet that...	Up ATM Asynchronous Transfer Mode Asynchronous Transfer Mode is a standard switching technique designed to unify telecommunication and computer networks. It uses asynchronous time-division multiplexing, and it encodes data into small, fixed-sized cells. This differs from approaches such as the Internet Protocol or Ethernet that...
2003-11-27	ADSL Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line Asymmetric digital subscriber line is a type of digital subscriber line technology, a data communications technology that enables faster data transmission over copper telephone lines than a conventional voiceband modem can provide. It does this by utilizing frequencies that are not used by a voice...	1024 kbit/s	256 kbit/s
2003-12-12	ADSL Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line Asymmetric digital subscriber line is a type of digital subscriber line technology, a data communications technology that enables faster data transmission over copper telephone lines than a conventional voiceband modem can provide. It does this by utilizing frequencies that are not used by a voice...	2048 kbit/s	256 kbit/s
2004-06-04	ADSL Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line Asymmetric digital subscriber line is a type of digital subscriber line technology, a data communications technology that enables faster data transmission over copper telephone lines than a conventional voiceband modem can provide. It does this by utilizing frequencies that are not used by a voice...	5 Mbit/s	350 kbit/s
2004-08-24	ADSL Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line Asymmetric digital subscriber line is a type of digital subscriber line technology, a data communications technology that enables faster data transmission over copper telephone lines than a conventional voiceband modem can provide. It does this by utilizing frequencies that are not used by a voice...	6 Mbit/s	1 Mbit/s
2004-10-20	ADSL2+	15 Mbit/s	1 Mbit/s
2005-01-06	ADSL2+	20 Mbit/s	1 Mbit/s
2005-11-08	ADSL2+	24 Mbit/s	1 Mbit/s
2006-07-26	ADSL2+ Broadcom Broadcom Broadcom Corporation is a fabless semiconductor company in the wireless and broadband communication business. The company is headquartered in Irvine, California, USA. Broadcom was founded by a professor-student pair Henry Samueli and Henry T. Nicholas III from the University of California, Los... Nitro	28 Mbit/s	1 Mbit/s
2007-06-21	ADSL2+ Broadcom Broadcom Broadcom Corporation is a fabless semiconductor company in the wireless and broadband communication business. The company is headquartered in Irvine, California, USA. Broadcom was founded by a professor-student pair Henry Samueli and Henry T. Nicholas III from the University of California, Los... Nitro Broadcom Broadcom Broadcom Corporation is a fabless semiconductor company in the wireless and broadband communication business. The company is headquartered in Irvine, California, USA. Broadcom was founded by a professor-student pair Henry Samueli and Henry T. Nicholas III from the University of California, Los... PhyR	28 Mbit/s	1 Mbit/s

2007-present: Fiber to the home

Free FTTH deployment milestones
Date	Technology	Down IP Internet Protocol The Internet Protocol is the principal communications protocol used for relaying datagrams across an internetwork using the Internet Protocol Suite...	Up IP Internet Protocol The Internet Protocol is the principal communications protocol used for relaying datagrams across an internetwork using the Internet Protocol Suite...	Deployment
2006-09-11	Iliad P2P	50 Mbit/s	50 Mbit/s	One NRO and some testers in Paris
2007-08-31	Iliad P2P	100 Mbit/s	50 Mbit/s	Some NROs and few subscribers in Paris
2008-06-26	Iliad P2P	100 Mbit/s	50 Mbit/s	Inauguration of Montpellier Montpellier -Neighbourhoods:Since 2001, Montpellier has been divided into seven official neighbourhoods, themselves divided into sub-neighbourhoods. Each of them possesses a neighbourhood council.... FTTH network
2009-12-01	Iliad P2P	100 Mbit/s	50 Mbit/s	Inauguration of Valenciennes Valenciennes Valenciennes is a commune in the Nord department in northern France.It lies on the Scheldt river. Although the city and region had seen a steady decline between 1975 and 1990, it has since rebounded... FTTH network

On 11 November 2006, Free announced the deployment of a new FTTH network for its subscribers. The initial plan's goal is to cover Paris as well as some towns in the Paris suburbs and selected neighborhoods in other French cities by 2012. By December 2007, the work was 30% finished, and the remaining work was progressing "at a furious pace".

On 31 August 2007, Free updated the offer with more details. Download bandwidth shall be 100 Mbit/s and TV services shall be available for two televisions, at the same price of 29.99€/month.

Free has developed its own fiber network technology, called Iliad P2P, based on Ethernet in the First Mile

Ethernet in the First Mile

Ethernet in the first mile refers to using one of the Ethernet family of computer network protocols between a telecommunications company and a customer's premise. From the customer's point of view it is their "first" mile, although from the access networks' point of view it is known as the "last...

and having a point to point (P2P) topology

Network topology

Network topology is the layout pattern of interconnections of the various elements of a computer or biological network....

. High curvature optic fibers are manufactured by the Dutch company Draka.

The deployment

System deployment

The deployment of a mechanical device, electrical system, computer program, etc., is its assembly or transformation from a packaged form to an operational working state....

is still essentially in the horizontal phase (the vertical phase being connection to the subscriber premises), and large-scale deployment to customers is foreseen. On 26 June 2008, Maxime Lombardini and the mayor inaugurated Free's FTTH network in a district of Montpellier

Montpellier

-Neighbourhoods:Since 2001, Montpellier has been divided into seven official neighbourhoods, themselves divided into sub-neighbourhoods. Each of them possesses a neighbourhood council....

.

On March 2008, Iliad

Iliad (company)

made the commitment to cover Paris at 75% by the second semester of 2009, and reiterated its goal to connect 4 million French homes to its own FTTH network by 2012. Significant volumes of subscribers will be connected as soon as the legislative framework is in place, expected by ARCEP for autumn 2009.

Voiceband

Extent

The Voiceband

Voiceband

In electronics, voiceband means the typical human hearing frequency range that is from 20 Hz to 20 kHz. In telephony, it means the frequency range normally transmitted by a telephone line, generally about 200–3600 Hz. Frequency-division multiplexing in telephony normally uses...

Dial-up internet access offer counts for a very small number of subscribers currently, as 98% of French homes were eligible for ADSL

Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line

Asymmetric digital subscriber line is a type of digital subscriber line technology, a data communications technology that enables faster data transmission over copper telephone lines than a conventional voiceband modem can provide. It does this by utilizing frequencies that are not used by a voice...

in 2006.

Pricing

Free began his activities with the famous free-of-charge Internet access, although data phone calls

Telephone call

A telephone call is a connection over a telephone network between the calling party and the called party.-Information transmission:A telephone call may carry ordinary voice transmission using a telephone, data transmission when the calling party and called party are using modems, or facsimile...

fees are not included. Another offer combines an Internet access with 50 hours of data phone calls

Telephone call

for 14.94 euro

Euro

The euro is the official currency of the eurozone: 17 of the 27 member states of the European Union. It is also the currency used by the Institutions of the European Union. The eurozone consists of Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg,...

s per month.

Freebox offer

Initially, Freebox was the name of the Freebox device

Freebox

, which consists of the Set-top box

Set-top box

and Modem

Modem

. Because of the device's popularity and reputation, it eventually became the name of the offer.

Price: 29.99 euro
Euro
The euro is the official currency of the eurozone: 17 of the 27 member states of the European Union. It is also the currency used by the Institutions of the European Union. The eurozone consists of Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg,...

s
Best broadband
Broadband
The term broadband refers to a telecommunications signal or device of greater bandwidth, in some sense, than another standard or usual signal or device . Different criteria for "broad" have been applied in different contexts and at different times...

connectivity
Telecommunication circuit
A telecommunication circuit is any line, conductor, or other conduit by which information is transmitted.A dedicated circuit, private circuit, or leased line is a line that is dedicated to only one use...

available for the subscriber home: FTTH, unbundled or bundled
"Triple play
Triple play (telecommunications)
In telecommunications, triple play service is a marketing term for the provisioning of two bandwidth-intensive services, high-speed Internet access and television, and a less bandwidth-demanding service, telephone, over a single broadband connection. Triple play focuses on a combined business...

" (broadband bundled connection
Telecommunication circuit
A telecommunication circuit is any line, conductor, or other conduit by which information is transmitted.A dedicated circuit, private circuit, or leased line is a line that is dedicated to only one use...

) or "quadruple play" (broadband unbundled or FTTH connection
Telecommunication circuit
A telecommunication circuit is any line, conductor, or other conduit by which information is transmitted.A dedicated circuit, private circuit, or leased line is a line that is dedicated to only one use...

) services
Free-of-charge migration to better connectivity
Telecommunication circuit
A telecommunication circuit is any line, conductor, or other conduit by which information is transmitted.A dedicated circuit, private circuit, or leased line is a line that is dedicated to only one use...

when available to subscriber
Possibility to update the Freebox
Freebox
The Freebox is an ADSL modem that the French internet service provider named Free provides to its ADSL subscribers.Its main use is as a high-end wireless modem , but it also allows Free to offer added services using ADSL as support, like HD television , video recording with timeshifting...

device; the upgrade price decreases with time and is free of charge after three years of subscription
A /60 IPv6
IPv6
Internet Protocol version 6 is a version of the Internet Protocol . It is designed to succeed the Internet Protocol version 4...

prefix

Internet access

Early IPv6 deployment
According to a study published by Google

Google

Google Inc. is an American multinational public corporation invested in Internet search, cloud computing, and advertising technologies. Google hosts and develops a number of Internet-based services and products, and generates profit primarily from advertising through its AdWords program...

at the RIPE

RIPE

Réseaux IP Européens is a forum open to all parties with an interest in the technical development of the Internet. The RIPE community’s objective is to ensure that the administrative and technical coordination necessary to maintain and develop the Internet continues...

meeting in October 2008, Free is probably the largest native IPv6

IPv6

Internet Protocol version 6 is a version of the Internet Protocol . It is designed to succeed the Internet Protocol version 4...

ISP

Internet service provider

in the World

World

World is a common name for the whole of human civilization, specifically human experience, history, or the human condition in general, worldwide, i.e. anywhere on Earth....

. By end 2008, almost all French IPv6

IPv6

Internet Protocol version 6 is a version of the Internet Protocol . It is designed to succeed the Internet Protocol version 4...

traffic measured in the study comes from Free customers.

Free deployed the IPv6

IPv6

Internet Protocol version 6 is a version of the Internet Protocol . It is designed to succeed the Internet Protocol version 4...

infrastructure

Infrastructure

Infrastructure is basic physical and organizational structures needed for the operation of a society or enterprise, or the services and facilities necessary for an economy to function...

in only 5 weeks, from 7 November to 11 December 2007, thanks to an innovative 6rd (IPv6 rapid deployment)

IPv6 rapid deployment

6rd is a mechanism to facilitate IPv6 rapid deployment across IPv4 infrastructures of Internet service providers .It is derived from 6to4, a preexisting mechanism to transfer IPv6 packets over the IPv4 network, with the significant change that it operates entirely within the end-user's ISP's...

proposal by Rémi Després

Rémi Després

Rémi Després is a French engineer and entrepreneur known for his contributions on Data networking.-Education:In 1961-1963, Rémi Després attended École Polytechnique of Paris, of which he holds an Engineer degree....

.

Wifi community network

Telephone

Included telephone calls

Included international phone calls
Date	Number of destinations at no extra cost
Date	Landline Landline A landline was originally an overland telegraph wire, as opposed to an undersea cable. Currently, landline refers to a telephone line which travels through a solid medium, either metal wire or optical fibre, as distinguished from a mobile cellular line, where transmission is via radio waves...	Mobiles Mobile phone A mobile phone is a device which can make and receive telephone calls over a radio link whilst moving around a wide geographic area. It does so by connecting to a cellular network provided by a mobile network operator...
July 2003	1 (Metropolitan France, unbundled subscribers only)	0
March 2004	1 (Metropolitan France, all subscribers since then)	0
December 2005	15 (Germany, Australia, Austria, Canada, China, Spain, United States, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Netherlands, Portugal, United Kingdom, Singapore )	2 (United States and Canada)
June 2006	26 (Taiwan Taiwan Taiwan , also known, especially in the past, as Formosa , is the largest island of the same-named island group of East Asia in the western Pacific Ocean and located off the southeastern coast of mainland China. The island forms over 99% of the current territory of the Republic of China following... , Norway, Canary Islands Canary Islands The Canary Islands , also known as the Canaries , is a Spanish archipelago located just off the northwest coast of mainland Africa, 100 km west of the border between Morocco and the Western Sahara. The Canaries are a Spanish autonomous community and an outermost region of the European Union... , Jersey Jersey Jersey, officially the Bailiwick of Jersey is a British Crown Dependency off the coast of Normandy, France. As well as the island of Jersey itself, the bailiwick includes two groups of small islands that are no longer permanently inhabited, the Minquiers and Écréhous, and the Pierres de Lecq and... , Greece...)	2
January 2007	49 (Turkey, Poland, Luxembourg Luxembourg Luxembourg , officially the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg , is a landlocked country in western Europe, bordered by Belgium, France, and Germany. It has two principal regions: the Oesling in the North as part of the Ardennes massif, and the Gutland in the south... , Russia, Japan...)	2
September 2007	70 (Peru Peru Peru , officially the Republic of Peru , is a country in western South America. It is bordered on the north by Ecuador and Colombia, on the east by Brazil, on the southeast by Bolivia, on the south by Chile, and on the west by the Pacific Ocean.... , Venezuela Venezuela Venezuela , officially called the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela , is a tropical country on the northern coast of South America. It borders Colombia to the west, Guyana to the east, and Brazil to the south... , South Korea South Korea The Republic of Korea , , is a sovereign state in East Asia, located on the southern portion of the Korean Peninsula. It is neighbored by the People's Republic of China to the west, Japan to the east, North Korea to the north, and the East China Sea and Republic of China to the south... , New Zealand...)	2
February 2009	100 (India, South Africa, Laos Laos Laos Lao: ສາທາລະນະລັດ ປະຊາທິປະໄຕ ປະຊາຊົນລາວ Sathalanalat Paxathipatai Paxaxon Lao, officially the Lao People's Democratic Republic, is a landlocked country in Southeast Asia, bordered by Burma and China to the northwest, Vietnam to the east, Cambodia to the south and Thailand to the west... , Colombia Colombia Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia , is a unitary constitutional republic comprising thirty-two departments. The country is located in northwestern South America, bordered to the east by Venezuela and Brazil; to the south by Ecuador and Peru; to the north by the Caribbean Sea; to the... , Indonesia Indonesia Indonesia , officially the Republic of Indonesia , is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania. Indonesia is an archipelago comprising approximately 13,000 islands. It has 33 provinces with over 238 million people, and is the world's fourth most populous country. Indonesia is a republic, with an... ...)	2
December 2009	103 (Morocco Morocco Morocco , officially the Kingdom of Morocco , is a country located in North Africa. It has a population of more than 32 million and an area of 710,850 km², and also primarily administers the disputed region of the Western Sahara... , Paraguay Paraguay Paraguay , officially the Republic of Paraguay , is a landlocked country in South America. It is bordered by Argentina to the south and southwest, Brazil to the east and northeast, and Bolivia to the northwest. Paraguay lies on both banks of the Paraguay River, which runs through the center of the... , Trinidad and Tobago Trinidad and Tobago Trinidad and Tobago officially the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago is an archipelagic state in the southern Caribbean, lying just off the coast of northeastern Venezuela and south of Grenada in the Lesser Antilles... )	2

In 2003, Free introduced unlimited phone calls at no additional price, while other phone operators

Telephone operator

A telephone operator is either* a person who provides assistance to a telephone caller, usually in the placing of operator assisted telephone calls such as calls from a pay phone, collect calls , calls which are billed to a credit card, station-to-station and person-to-person calls, and certain...

or ISPs charged per-minute fees for telephone calls. Competitors have then been forced to imitate these changes, but with fewer destinations included or at an additional price. Bundled Free subscribers enjoy same free calls as those unbundled since March 2004. Calls to United States and Canada have been free of charge since December 2005.

In 2006, Free and France Telecom

France Télécom

were in conflict against an unfair increase of Neuf Cegetel

Neuf Cegetel

Neuf Cegetel is a French wireline telecom services provider and a mobile virtual network operator offering different services to consumers, enterprises and wholesale customers, ranking number two in the country...

own termination tariff, aimed at undermining unlimited phone offers in France. The French regulator ARCEP then decided to apply a threshold for call termination. Unlimited free phone calls have been perennial in France since then.

Telephone services

A wide range of telephone services are provided at no additional cost, such as an online answering machine

Answering machine

The answering machine or message machine, also known as the telephone answering machine in the UK and some Commonwealth countries) and previously known as an ansaphone, ansafone, or telephone answering device is a device for answering telephones and recording callers' messages.Unlike voicemail,...

, ringback tone

Ringback tone

A ringback tone is an audible indication that is heard on the telephone line by the caller while the phone they are calling is being rung. It is normally a repeated tone, designed to assure the calling party that the called party's line is ringing, although the ring-back tone may be out of sync...

customization, call transfer

Call transfer

A call transfer is a telecommunications mechanism that enables a user to relocate an existing call to another phone or attendant console by using the transfer button and dialing the required location. The transferred call is either announced or unannounced....

, caller ID

Caller ID

Caller ID , also called calling line identification or calling number identification or Calling Line Identification Presentation , is a telephone service, available in analog and digital phone systems and most Voice over Internet Protocol applications, that transmits a caller's number to...

, inbound and outbound call filtering, conference call

Conference call

A conference call is a telephone call in which the calling party wishes to have more than one called party listen in to the audio portion of the call. The conference calls may be designed to allow the called party to participate during the call, or the call may be set up so that the called party...

s, and Wi-Fi

Wi-Fi

Wi-Fi or Wifi, is a mechanism for wirelessly connecting electronic devices. A device enabled with Wi-Fi, such as a personal computer, video game console, smartphone, or digital audio player, can connect to the Internet via a wireless network access point. An access point has a range of about 20...

voice SIP

Session Initiation Protocol

The Session Initiation Protocol is an IETF-defined signaling protocol widely used for controlling communication sessions such as voice and video calls over Internet Protocol . The protocol can be used for creating, modifying and terminating two-party or multiparty sessions...

.

Since April 2007, each customer has been assigned a fax number in addition to the traditional phone number. This additional line

Telephone line

A telephone line or telephone circuit is a single-user circuit on a telephone communication system...

is dedicated to the online faxing

Internet fax

Internet fax uses the Internet to receive and send faxes.Internet faxing, "e-Fax" or "online faxing" is a general term which refers to sending a document facsimile using the Internet, rather than using only phone networks with a fax machine.Depending on the specific method/implementation ,...

service.

Television

IPTV leader

According to a study published in 2008 by Light Reading, Free is by far the largest IPTV

IPTV

carrier in the World

World

World is a common name for the whole of human civilization, specifically human experience, history, or the human condition in general, worldwide, i.e. anywhere on Earth....

. This fact is also confirmed by the TV Markets Quarterly Monitoring.

ARDP protocol creator

Access rights of television channels are applied securely without requiring any smartcard

Smart card

A smart card, chip card, or integrated circuit card , is any pocket-sized card with embedded integrated circuits. A smart card or microprocessor cards contain volatile memory and microprocessor components. The card is made of plastic, generally polyvinyl chloride, but sometimes acrylonitrile...

, thanks to the ARDP protocol created by Free and submitted to the community through the IETF.

Other services

Unlimited Email addresses
E-mail address
An email address identifies an email box to which email messages are delivered. An example format of an email address is lewis@example.net which is read as lewis at example dot net...

(1 GB
Gigabyte
The gigabyte is a multiple of the unit byte for digital information storage. The prefix giga means 109 in the International System of Units , therefore 1 gigabyte is...

each), web GUI
Graphical user interface
In computing, a graphical user interface is a type of user interface that allows users to interact with electronic devices with images rather than text commands. GUIs can be used in computers, hand-held devices such as MP3 players, portable media players or gaming devices, household appliances and...

based on Zimbra Collaboration Suite
Zimbra
Zimbra Collaboration Suite is a groupware product created by Zimbra, Inc., located in Palo Alto, California, USA. The company was purchased by Yahoo! in September 2007, and subsequently purchased by VMware on Tuesday, January 12, 2010. The software consists of both client and server components...
10 GB
Gigabyte
The gigabyte is a multiple of the unit byte for digital information storage. The prefix giga means 109 in the International System of Units , therefore 1 gigabyte is...

personal pages
Personal web page
Personal web pages are World Wide Web pages created by an individual to contain content of a personal nature rather than on behalf of an employer or institution. Personal web pages are often used solely for informative or entertainment purposes....

(PHP
PHP
PHP is a general-purpose server-side scripting language originally designed for web development to produce dynamic web pages. For this purpose, PHP code is embedded into the HTML source document and interpreted by a web server with a PHP processor module, which generates the web page document...

, MySQL
MySQL
MySQL officially, but also commonly "My Sequel") is a relational database management system that runs as a server providing multi-user access to a number of databases. It is named after developer Michael Widenius' daughter, My...

/PostgreSQL
PostgreSQL
PostgreSQL, often simply Postgres, is an object-relational database management system available for many platforms including Linux, FreeBSD, Solaris, MS Windows and Mac OS X. It is released under the PostgreSQL License, which is an MIT-style license, and is thus free and open source software...

, web tools such as WordPress
WordPress
WordPress is a free and open source blogging tool and publishing platform powered by PHP and MySQL. It is often customized into a content management system . It has many features including a plug-in architecture and a template system. WordPress is used by over 14.7% of Alexa Internet's "top 1...

)
Large file exchange (up to 10 GB
Gigabyte
The gigabyte is a multiple of the unit byte for digital information storage. The prefix giga means 109 in the International System of Units , therefore 1 gigabyte is...

) with features such as online movie player
Video player (software)
A video player is a kind of media player for playing back digital video data from media such as optical discs , as well as from files of appropriate formats such as MPEG, AVI, RealVideo, and QuickTime....

, etc...

Market share

Since August 2008, the parent company Iliad

Iliad (company)

(including Free and Alice brands) is the second-largest ISP

Internet service provider

in France. The leader is Orange (former state monopoly

Government monopoly

In economics, a government monopoly is a form of coercive monopoly in which a government agency or government corporation is the sole provider of a particular good or service and competition is prohibited by law...

company France Telecom

France Télécom

), and the third is SFR

SFR

SFR is a French mobile phone company. It has over 20 million customers, and provides over 4.6 million households with high-speed internet access...

.

In 2007 (a major consolidation

Consolidation (business)

Consolidation or amalgamation is the act of merging many things into one. In business, it often refers to the mergers and acquisitions of many smaller companies into much larger ones. In the context of financial accounting, consolidation refers to the aggregation of financial statements of a group...

year in the French broadband

Broadband

market), Free was the only ISP

Internet service provider

brand to gain market share.

Free was the second-largest French ISP

Internet service provider

until end June 2007, when competitor Neuf Cegetel

Neuf Cegetel

acquired

Mergers and acquisitions

Mergers and acquisitions refers to the aspect of corporate strategy, corporate finance and management dealing with the buying, selling, dividing and combining of different companies and similar entities that can help an enterprise grow rapidly in its sector or location of origin, or a new field or...

Club Internet (T-Online

T-Online

T-Online, a former subsidiary and now business unit of Deutsche Telekom, is the biggest internet service provider in Germany. It evolved out of the proprietary German Bildschirmtext information service in 1995...

France). Neuf Cegetel

Neuf Cegetel

used to grow essentially by purchasing its competitors, until it was itself absorbed by SFR

SFR

SFR is a French mobile phone company. It has over 20 million customers, and provides over 4.6 million households with high-speed internet access...

. Until 2009, Free has always had a higher organic growth

Organic growth

In finance, organic growth is the process of businesses expansion due to increasing overall customer base, increased output per customer or representative, new sales, or any combination of the above, as opposed to mergers and acquisitions that are examples of inorganic growth. Typically, the...

than Neuf Cegetel

Neuf Cegetel

and SFR

SFR

SFR is a French mobile phone company. It has over 20 million customers, and provides over 4.6 million households with high-speed internet access...

.

Iliad

Iliad (company)

regained its second place after buying "Alice Telecom" from Telecom Italia

Telecom Italia

Telecom Italia is the largest Italian telecommunications company, also active in the media and manufacturing industries. Now a private concern listed on the Borsa Italiana, it was founded in 1994 by the merger of several state-owned telecommunications companies, the most important of which was...

in the summer of 2008.

Until the purchase of Alice France, Free's subscribers growth was exclusively organic

Organic growth

, except for the strategic acquisition of the Citéfibre FTTH ISP

Internet service provider

in 2006 (about 500 subscribers).

Free broadband subscribers and market share since 2002
Year	Free Broadband Broadband The term broadband refers to a telecommunications signal or device of greater bandwidth, in some sense, than another standard or usual signal or device . Different criteria for "broad" have been applied in different contexts and at different times... subscribers				ADSL Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line Asymmetric digital subscriber line is a type of digital subscriber line technology, a data communications technology that enables faster data transmission over copper telephone lines than a conventional voiceband modem can provide. It does this by utilizing frequencies that are not used by a voice... subscribers in France		Broadband Broadband The term broadband refers to a telecommunications signal or device of greater bandwidth, in some sense, than another standard or usual signal or device . Different criteria for "broad" have been applied in different contexts and at different times... subscribers in France
Year	Bundled	Unbundled	Total	Unbundling ratio	Total	Free market share	Total	Free market share
2002	95,000	3,000	98,000	3.1%	1,361,377	7.2%
2003	320,000	153,000	473,000	32.4%	2,967,434	15.9%
2004	500,000	549,000	1,049,000	52.4%	6,072,723	17.2%	6,529,997	16.0%
2005	475,000	1,120,000	1,595,000	70.2%	8,881,875	17,9%	9,500,000	16,8%
2006	548,000	1,730,000	2,278,000	75.9%	12,019,000	19.0%	12,700,000	17.9%
2007	537,000	2,367,000	2,904,000	81.5%	14,741,000	19.7%	15,550,000	18.7%
2008	901,132	3,323,868	4,225,000	78.7%	16,804,000	25.1%	17,819,000	23.7%
2009	651,000	3,805,000	4,456,000	85.4%	18,500,000	24.1%	19,690,000	22.6%

Free has the lowest churn rate
Churn rate
Churn rate , in its broadest sense, is a measure of the number of individuals or items moving into or out of a collective over a specific period of time...

amongst French broadband
Broadband
The term broadband refers to a telecommunications signal or device of greater bandwidth, in some sense, than another standard or usual signal or device . Different criteria for "broad" have been applied in different contexts and at different times...

providers, below 1% per month.
Iliad
Iliad (company)
Iliad S.A. is a French provider of telecommunication services. It is based in Paris and its operations comprise fixed telephony services, prepaid phone cards and internet access providing and hosting services. The company was founded by Xavier Niel in 1999....

targets 4 million Broadband
Broadband
The term broadband refers to a telecommunications signal or device of greater bandwidth, in some sense, than another standard or usual signal or device . Different criteria for "broad" have been applied in different contexts and at different times...

(ADSL
Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line
Asymmetric digital subscriber line is a type of digital subscriber line technology, a data communications technology that enables faster data transmission over copper telephone lines than a conventional voiceband modem can provide. It does this by utilizing frequencies that are not used by a voice...

and FTTH) subscribers by 2010 and an unbundling ratio of 85%.

Profitability

Free claims to be the first profit

Profit (accounting)

In accounting, profit can be considered to be the difference between the purchase price and the costs of bringing to market whatever it is that is accounted as an enterprise in terms of the component costs of delivered goods and/or services and any operating or other expenses.-Definition:There are...

able ISP

Internet service provider

in France and to have the lowest subscriber acquisition

Customer acquisition management

Customer acquisition management is a term used to describe the methodologies and systems to manage customer prospects and inquiries, generally generated by a variety of marketing techniques. It can be considered the connectivity between advertising and customer relationship management...

cost amongst French operators

Internet service provider

.

The unbundling ratio is one of the key strategic figures:

Free has QoS
Quality of service
The quality of service refers to several related aspects of telephony and computer networks that allow the transport of traffic with special requirements...

control on unbundled lines
Unbundled Access
Unbundled access is an often practiced form of regulation during liberalization, where new entrants of the market are offered access to facilities of the incumbent, that are hard to duplicate...

since these are connected
Telecommunication circuit
A telecommunication circuit is any line, conductor, or other conduit by which information is transmitted.A dedicated circuit, private circuit, or leased line is a line that is dedicated to only one use...

to Free's own DSLAMs
Digital subscriber line access multiplexer
A digital subscriber line access multiplexer is a network device, located in the telephone exchanges of the telecommunications operators. It connects multiple customer digital subscriber line interfaces to a high-speed digital communications channel using multiplexing techniques...

instead of France Telecom
France Télécom
France Telecom S.A. is the main telecommunications company in France, the third-largest in Europe and one of the largest in the world. It currently employs about 180,000 people and has 192.7 million customers worldwide . In 2010 the group had revenue of €45.5 billion...

DSLAMs
Digital subscriber line access multiplexer
A digital subscriber line access multiplexer is a network device, located in the telephone exchanges of the telecommunications operators. It connects multiple customer digital subscriber line interfaces to a high-speed digital communications channel using multiplexing techniques...

.
Bundled lines generate expensive bandwidth
Bandwidth (computing)
In computer networking and computer science, bandwidth, network bandwidth, data bandwidth, or digital bandwidth is a measure of available or consumed data communication resources expressed in bits/second or multiples of it .Note that in textbooks on wireless communications, modem data transmission,...

fees paid to the incumbent
Incumbent
The incumbent, in politics, is the existing holder of a political office. This term is usually used in reference to elections, in which races can often be defined as being between an incumbent and non-incumbent. For example, in the 2004 United States presidential election, George W...

France Telecom
France Télécom
France Telecom S.A. is the main telecommunications company in France, the third-largest in Europe and one of the largest in the world. It currently employs about 180,000 people and has 192.7 million customers worldwide . In 2010 the group had revenue of €45.5 billion...

.
TV
Television
Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...

multicast
Multicast
In computer networking, multicast is the delivery of a message or information to a group of destination computers simultaneously in a single transmission from the source creating copies automatically in other network elements, such as routers, only when the topology of the network requires...

is not provided by France Telecom
France Télécom
France Telecom S.A. is the main telecommunications company in France, the third-largest in Europe and one of the largest in the world. It currently employs about 180,000 people and has 192.7 million customers worldwide . In 2010 the group had revenue of €45.5 billion...

DSLAMs
Digital subscriber line access multiplexer
A digital subscriber line access multiplexer is a network device, located in the telephone exchanges of the telecommunications operators. It connects multiple customer digital subscriber line interfaces to a high-speed digital communications channel using multiplexing techniques...

.

Because of bandwidth cost, only a subset of the TV

Television

Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...

services is offered to bundled subscribers; while unbundled

Unbundled Access

Unbundled access is an often practiced form of regulation during liberalization, where new entrants of the market are offered access to facilities of the incumbent, that are hard to duplicate...

subscribers can access value-added services such as VOD

Video on demand

Video on Demand or Audio and Video On Demand are systems which allow users to select and watch/listen to video or audio content on demand...

and Subscription VOD

Video on demand

Video on Demand or Audio and Video On Demand are systems which allow users to select and watch/listen to video or audio content on demand...

. These services' revenue

Revenue

In business, revenue is income that a company receives from its normal business activities, usually from the sale of goods and services to customers. In many countries, such as the United Kingdom, revenue is referred to as turnover....

s are constantly increasing.

In 2007, Free had the greatest EBITDA margin of the sector in Europe, was the only actor to gain market share in France and had a debt

Debt

A debt is an obligation owed by one party to a second party, the creditor; usually this refers to assets granted by the creditor to the debtor, but the term can also be used metaphorically to cover moral obligations and other interactions not based on economic value.A debt is created when a...

ratio 10 times lower than the industry average. Thanks to these assets, the initial FTTH deployment (targeted at 2012) will be entirely self-financed by existing activities.

Although investors are concerned about the investments in both the 3G mobile network and an FTTH network (1 billion euros each), the perspectives of Free and of the whole sector in Europe are promising according to analysts.

Logos and slogans

Year	Slogan (translation)	Original French slogan
1999	Liberty is priceless	La Liberté n'a pas de Prix
2007	Everything is included	C'est tout compris
2008	Undoubtedly the best offer since a long time	Sans doute la meilleure offre depuis bien longtemps
2009	He has Free, he has all included / understood	Il a Free, il a tout compris
2011	Feel Free

Culture

Disruptive

Free is the last independent

Startup company

A startup company or startup is a company with a limited operating history. These companies, generally newly created, are in a phase of development and research for markets...

operator in France. Google

Google

is sometimes suggested as a comparison for the Free spirit. Unlike all other French broadband ISPs

Internet service provider

, nearly everything is designed within the company: Freebox devices, DSLAMs

Digital subscriber line access multiplexer

A digital subscriber line access multiplexer is a network device, located in the telephone exchanges of the telecommunications operators. It connects multiple customer digital subscriber line interfaces to a high-speed digital communications channel using multiplexing techniques...

, network switch

Network switch

A network switch or switching hub is a computer networking device that connects network segments.The term commonly refers to a multi-port network bridge that processes and routes data at the data link layer of the OSI model...

es and the backend billing system. The company has a medium- and long-term industrial strategy rather than the short-term financial strategy of its competitors.
Free is often designated by journalists as the "broadband maverick", the "troublemaker of the Internet", a "do-it-yourselfer", a "pioneer in IPTV", a "truly disruptive company", the "geek

Geek

The word geek is a slang term, with different meanings ranging from "a computer expert or enthusiast" to "a carnival performer who performs sensationally morbid or disgusting acts", with a general pejorative meaning of "a peculiar or otherwise dislikable person, esp[ecially] one who is perceived to...

's ISP", the "cactus of the telecoms", the "Broadband Rebel", "one of the greatest French industrial successes of the last twenty years", a "Silicon Valley success story", a "Robin Hood", an "Uncle Scrooge", a "nightmare vision for Orange, SFR and Bouygues".

Openness

The ISP, as well as its owner Xavier Niel

Xavier Niel

Xavier Niel, born 25 August 1967 is a French entrepreneur and businessman, active in the telecommunications and technology industry and best known as founder and majority shareholder of the French Internet service provider Iliad trading under the Free brand...

, promote free and independent

Alternative media

Alternative media are media which provide alternative information to the mainstream media in a given context, whether the mainstream media are commercial, publicly supported, or government-owned...

media, such as:

Television channels that have emerged through Freebox
Freebox
The Freebox is an ADSL modem that the French internet service provider named Free provides to its ADSL subscribers.Its main use is as a high-end wireless modem , but it also allows Free to offer added services using ADSL as support, like HD television , video recording with timeshifting...

thanks to fair and handy broadcast conditions: Nolife
Nolife (TV channel)
Nolife is a French TV network. It describes itself as the TV "for geeks, nerds and otakus". It mainly deals with videogames, Japanese culture, technology and various other topics...

and arretsurimages.tv.
Toll-free legal music streaming: Deezer
Deezer
Deezer is a free music streaming service based in Paris, France. Deezer was launched on August 24, 2007. Deezer has negotiated rights to make 165,000 songs available for streaming legally via an agreement with Sony, as well as some of Universal's catalog...

.
TV 2.0: since June 2007, Freenauts can broadcast their own TV channel by plugging a simple analog camera into the Freebox
Freebox
The Freebox is an ADSL modem that the French internet service provider named Free provides to its ADSL subscribers.Its main use is as a high-end wireless modem , but it also allows Free to offer added services using ADSL as support, like HD television , video recording with timeshifting...

.
Emerging alternative
Alternative media
Alternative media are media which provide alternative information to the mainstream media in a given context, whether the mainstream media are commercial, publicly supported, or government-owned...

press in France: Mediapart, Bakchich, Vendredi, and Terra Economica.
Video publishing platform vpod.tv.

Corporate culture

Corporate culture appears obvious from these remarkable facts:

The call center is run almost entirely on Ubuntu
Ubuntu (operating system)
Ubuntu is a computer operating system based on the Debian Linux distribution and distributed as free and open source software. It is named after the Southern African philosophy of Ubuntu...

-based PC
Personal computer
A personal computer is any general-purpose computer whose size, capabilities, and original sales price make it useful for individuals, and which is intended to be operated directly by an end-user with no intervening computer operator...

s.
On startup, each Freebox HD device displays Rock'n'roll on the TV
Television
Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...

screen.
On advertising pictures, the time displayed by the Freebox device is 13:37 (leet
Leet
Leet , also known as eleet or leetspeak, is an alternative alphabet for the English language that is used primarily on the Internet. It uses various combinations of ASCII characters to replace Latinate letters...

).
In February 2000, Xavier Niel offered 10 million francs
French franc
The franc was a currency of France. Along with the Spanish peseta, it was also a de facto currency used in Andorra . Between 1360 and 1641, it was the name of coins worth 1 livre tournois and it remained in common parlance as a term for this amount of money...

to Google
Google
Google Inc. is an American multinational public corporation invested in Internet search, cloud computing, and advertising technologies. Google hosts and develops a number of Internet-based services and products, and generates profit primarily from advertising through its AdWords program...

directors to buy their search engine activities in France (the offer was declined).
The name Free was chosen in 1999 two weeks before the launch of the service, and eventually became the company's name, the other candidate name being Online.
The Freebox
Freebox
The Freebox is an ADSL modem that the French internet service provider named Free provides to its ADSL subscribers.Its main use is as a high-end wireless modem , but it also allows Free to offer added services using ADSL as support, like HD television , video recording with timeshifting...

device name was inspired by the name of a pack of cigarettes.

Popularity in France

"Freenaut" is the common designation for each internaut

Internaut

Internaut is a term for a designer, operator, or technically capable user of the Internet. Beginning with participants in the Internet Engineering Task Force , it gradually expanded to members of the Internet Society and the larger community....

using the Internet through a Free connection. This community is estimated to reach between 10 and 12 million individuals as of March 2009. The Freenaut community includes a core group of technology enthusiasts who contribute to Free's influence and popularity in several ways:

User web sites
Personal web page
Personal web pages are World Wide Web pages created by an individual to contain content of a personal nature rather than on behalf of an employer or institution. Personal web pages are often used solely for informative or entertainment purposes....

hosted by Free for free.
Live TV Perso shows presenters.
Télésite developers (news, weather, games, video blogs, alternate TV interfaces...).
Free wiki
Wiki
A wiki is a website that allows the creation and editing of any number of interlinked web pages via a web browser using a simplified markup language or a WYSIWYG text editor. Wikis are typically powered by wiki software and are often used collaboratively by multiple users. Examples include...

writers.
Developers of Freeplayer software.
Contributors to Free bugtracker
Bug tracking system
A bug tracking system is a software application that is designed to help quality assurance and programmers keep track of reported software bugs in their work. It may be regarded as a type of issue tracking system....

.
Network monitoring, unbundling curve graphs and FTTH deployment maps.

According to recurrent audience measurement

Audience measurement

Audience measurement measures how many people are in an audience, usually in relation to radio listenership and television viewership, but also in relation to newspaper and magazine readership and, increasingly, web traffic on websites...

reports conducted by Médiamétrie

Médiamétrie

-External links: http://www.mediametrie.fr/ http://www.mediametrie.com/...

, Free's general portal is the fourth most popular website

Website

A website, also written as Web site, web site, or simply site, is a collection of related web pages containing images, videos or other digital assets. A website is hosted on at least one web server, accessible via a network such as the Internet or a private local area network through an Internet...

in France. During peak load hours, Free accounts for nearly half the traffic on the Amsterdam Internet Exchange

Amsterdam Internet Exchange

The Amsterdam Internet Exchange is an Internet exchange point situated in Amsterdam, in the Netherlands. AMS-IX started in 1994 and is a fast growing, non-profit, neutral and independent peering point...

External links

In English

Iliad S.A.—Free's Owner Corporate Site containing press releases
Free Assistance—User Relations Center

In French

Freenews—First independent news website and TV channel about Free held by volunteers
UniversFeebox—Most active news website about Free held by volunteers
Journal du Freenaute—News website about Free with some investigation items
Freeplayer.org—Community of Freeplayer and related tools developers
Freephonie.org—Community of Freenauts using the Freephonie SIP network
Portail Free—Free's general portal
Offre Internet—Internet offer description and subscription website

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.

1999–2001: Network building and voiceband

2002-2003: ADSL at a disruptive price

2004-2006: Unbundled ADSL and "triple play"

2007-present: Fiber to the home

Voiceband

Freebox offer

Internet access

Telephone

Television

Other services

Market share

Profitability

Logos and slogans

Culture

See also

External links