COUNTRY PROFILE: France: A New Technological Giant

Currently, the New Information and Communication Technology (NICT) sector in

France has more financial muscle than the energy and automotive sectors

combined. This represents a genuine boom that owes a lot to the quality of the

infrastructure put in place long before. In the field of fixed telephony, for

example, France is equipped with a particularly extensive network that covers

the whole of its territory, with just over 34 million lines in operation. This

means that nearly a hundred percent of French households are connected. As for

the mobile phone, its use reached unrivalled levels in France, with a market

penetration level of 43.6 percent. Close to one in two French citizens currently

own one, and a new generation of mobile phones is already upon us–the

so-called third generation, capable of accessing the Internet and allowing the

user to make online purchases or to transmit data, all at very high speed.

High-Speed Access Gives Green Light

The high-speed access market in France is diversifying constantly. There is

now a choice of access via mobile networks, cable networks, analog networks

using ADSL technology by satellite or even by radio local loop. As a result, by

2003, 30 million of Internet access will be high-speed and the transmission of

data will be even faster. And France occupies a leading role in this market. The

cable network is already providing ten million households with access to this

technology.

1998 saw a 175 percent increase in the number of domain names registered,

twice the figure for Great Britain. This boom has at its root, the advancement

of high-speed Internet access; the advantages of all in charging Internet access

via mobile phones and televisions, which ninety five percent of French

households possess. Already won over by twenty years of electronic commerce via

Minitel, the small electronic terminal linked to the telephone that has seduced

more than fifteen million users, the French are already ready to make purchases

over the Internet.

The Internet in France

The strong growth of the Internet in France can also be explained by its

leading position in Europe across all segments of the NICT sector. The France

Telecom group has consequently become a big hitter on the world market, mainly

due to the construction of a special network with future web surfers, and by

positioning itself in the Internet access markets of its European neighbors

(purchases of Orange and Freeserve, participation, acquisition of Global

one...). France Telecom is also a presence in the transport of data, content

publication and electronic commerce. Other companies, both start-ups and

established ones, have been swept along by the force of their success: nearly

one and a half million people currently work in the NCIT sector in France.

Conquering the Internet

The progress in the field of telecommunications has resulted in the Internet

access market in France really taking off, with more than seven million people

now regularly surfing the web (nearly half of whom live in Paris and its

surrounding areas!). This figure looks set to reach eleven million during 2001.

The Internet Hits the Street

But Internet access in France is not just the preserve of office workers. In

Paris, as in many other cities, the Internet is well established and can be seen

flourishing in the cyber cafés, which keep the population up to date with the

web. For a nominal fee, or sometimes free of charge, it is possible to surf the

web all over the capital. Even at peak hours, traffic is not obstructed since

all the cyber cafes benefit from high-speed access!

Behind the web or the mobile phone lies a whole infrastructure made up of

terrestrial and undersea cables, satellites and fiber optic networks. Without

them there would be no transmission of data. In these fields, two primarily

French companies have become leaders in their respective markets.

Alcatel, present in 130-countries, world leader in ADSL equipment, fiber

optics, terrestrial and undersea networks, is also one of the world’s leading

satellite manufacturers. Eighty five percent of the groups’ turnover comes

from the telecom sector, amounting to more than nineteen million Euros. By

allocating more than ten percent turnover (some 2 billion Euros) to R&D,

Alcatel is giving itself the best possible chance of remaining at the cutting

edge of this sector in constant technological evolution, particularly in the

filed of space investigation.

Satellites play a primary role in the telecommunications infrastructure:

televisions, radios, mobile telephony, meteorology... (almost) everything comes

through them. The design and launch of satellites is a highly

specialized market in which Arianspace, through twenty years of activity,

has launched 170-satellites into orbit on behalf of more than forty five client

countries. The proud success has continued for twenty years, thanks to massive

investment in new launchers: on 15 November 2000, the new Ariane 5 rocket,

placed into orbit two of the largest geostationary telecommunications satellites

in the world.