Updated: Xavier Niel, the maverick founder of Iliad, the company behind Free.fr broadband service, is about to redefine the mobile landscape, perhaps as early as tomorrow, when he launches the much-talked about Free Mobile. In doing so, he will redefine what the idea of a carrier in the 21st century is, thanks to a radical new approach. Utilizing a blend of Wi-Fi, HSPA+ 3G, femtocells and its all-fiber backbone, Free will offer unlimited voice, texting and data over the mobile networks; just bring your own iPhone(s aapl). But before I get into the details of his new company, let me back up and tell you about Iliad and Free.fr.
Set it Free.fr
In Dec. 2007, while attending Le Web in Paris, I snuck out to visit Niel, the man behind Iliad, a Paris-based phone service that owned many entities including its most well-known offering: Free.fr, a broadband service that offered phone (VoIP), video (IPTV) and broadband for a simple flat monthly fee. A simple, low monthly rate was possible because of the network he owned and the technologies he used. Here is what I wrote then:
By offering a flat-rate, high-speed Internet connection for 30 euros ($43) a month. That gives Free.fr’s three million subscribers a connection speed of roughly 28 megabits per second over DSL, free IPTV (and a free set-top box), a free Wi-Fi hub, and unlimited voice calls to some 70 countries.
“We are a broadband service provider,” was his matter-of-fact reply. “Everything else — from voice to IPTV to storage – is just a feature that rides on this data service.” For the rest of the telecom industry, long addicted to metered minutes and billable items, this is rebellious thinking.
Niel, who had started Free in 1999, bought a lot of dark fiber from carriers who had gone bust around the turn of the century and built an IP-only network that snaked across France. The unbundling of the telecom loops had given the necessary push to offer fast DSL and use the broadband pipes to offer different services. The flat fee model would force the incumbents — France Telecom (now Orange) and other competitors — to follow suit. They, too, started offering simpler rate plans.
Going mobile
In the four years since I first met him, Niel, who is now 44 years old, is much wealthier than he was in 2007. The number of subscribers on his Free.fr service has grown to five million. But his big bet on fiber hasn’t paid off — just yet. With the wireline market saturated, Niel started eyeing more opportunities — especially in the mobile arena.
Free.fr is under pressure from the quad-play offerings — broadband, mobile, VoIP and video — from three of its major rivals: France Telecom, (s fte) Vivendi’s SFR and Bouygues Telecom. The company needs to respond by its own quad-play offering. To be fair, Niel saw it coming a long time ago and had applied for mobile licenses back in 2007. and Free Mobile was awarded a license in Dec. 2009 at the cost of €240 million $307.39 million USD). The company also signed a roaming agreement with Orange to cover most of the service.
And now the mobile service is ready. There are few details available, and Niel is keeping his cards close to the chest. In Dec. 2011, once again, I ducked out of Le Web and visited Niel in his offices in the 8th Arrondissement, a chic business district. He has moved next door from his old office, having taken over a massive building with a lovely rotunda. It is befitting the growing stature of his company and the man himself. However, inside his offices, nothing much has changed.
About three dozen engineers form the brain trust of Free.fr, inventing new features for the service. Five guys who built the software and a few others who hacked together the hardware are standing by the side as the boss man gives the demo. It was just like 2007 — as if nothing had changed.
For about 45 minutes, Niel gave me a demo of his set-top box, which is everything a modern connected home needs: broadband modem, Wi-Fi router, storage center, a Blu-ray player, web-surfing device and a game machine. And while it might not have the Apple brand, you could see who had inspired the Free’s set-top box: It was even able to playback music from my iPhone using AirPlay.
Set-top box = Stealth weapon
“Since it is our own set-top box, we can innovate around it,” he says. “In the U.S., they buy their set-top boxes from other providers.” That’s a mistake and lost opportunity, Niel says and proceeds to outline how pivotal these set-top boxes are for his company and its future.
For example, Free.fr used the set-top box for automatically sharing a portion of one’s broadband connection via Wi-Fi with other Free.fr customers. Over five million set-top boxes means Free.fr has a free Wi-Fi cloud enveloping major cities such as Paris. Even when away from home, you can easily get broadband instead of resorting to an expensive 3G network.
This Free.Fr free Wi-Fi network is going to play a pivotal role in the soon-to-be-launched service, which will be using 42 Mbps HSPA+ technology. The company has built a network of 15,000 macrocells, but those 5 million “nano cells” are going to be the key difference maker, Niel points out.
Free.fr’s newer set-top boxes will have built-in femtocells. On top of that, Free is going to be beefing up its macrocells with high-capacity fiber connections being fed by Iliad’s dark fiber. And when the time comes, he is going to embrace LTE and include that in his network as well. “We will go to wide area network (3G and 2.5G) when we are not in Wi-Fi coverage,” he tells me. (I got a sneaking suspicion Free would be pushing iPhones into the market pretty heavily.) If they pull it off, it’s going to be pretty spectacular and once again, show what the telecom of tomorrow looks like.
I couldn’t help but notice that in 2000, he roped in Cisco, (s csco) then desperately trying to get a toe-hold in the broadband market, to help him with the network buildout. This time, he got an equally desperate Nokia Siemens Networks (s nok)(s si) on the hook.
Mobile money
When I ask him about the price, he demurs. “It will be cheaper than the current market price,” he adds. So how is he going to make money? The answer comes in a throwaway comment he made when we were sitting around talking. “In your pocket you have three things: your keys, your phone and your wallet,” he says. “I think of those three only one will remain: your phone.”
He believes telecoms should charge for access and make money by selling the ID and payment services, not voice and SMS. It’s one of the reasons he loves Square, Jack Dorsey’s payment company, where he is an angel investor. “It is crazy to pay for voice by the minute as voice is so cheap,” he says. Even SMS texting is a lot of money and he finds that crazy. “We are trying to be the cheapest mobile service in France,” he adds. Don’t be surprised to see Google Voice-type (s goog) services built into the service itself.
“Free has had a reputation as a trendsetter who understands the clarity consumers demand,” adds Rudolf van der Berg of OECD, an international treaty organisation, like the United Nations or the World Health Organisation that advises 34 countries (including France) on policies ranging from finances to telecoms.a global telecom group. “Splitting the cost of the phone from the subscription simplifies things greatly for the consumer and might be a trend worth following. Certainly from a consumer rights perspective, this is to be applauded as many offers from mobile phone company.”
According to some rumors, the service is said to cost €30 a month, with unlimited calls to 100 countries, unlimited data and unlimited SMS (€20 if you also have broadband.) “What it really does is make both data and voice usage completely irrelevant to consumers. How much do you call per month will be as interesting a question for your bill as how many emails do you send per month,” says van der Berg.
“We have a different view of things because we are [a] telecom with an Internet startup’s model,” Niel says. So far, it’s working. The company has sales of $2.8 billion and makes nearly a billion dollars in profits. For now, it might seem good, but Niel knows he has to continue out-innovating his rivals.
So what comes next?
For now, Niel’s team is working on new 10 Gbps gear so he can support the network upgrades he envisions. Three years from now, as the network starts to support HD and 3-D video streams, the pipes to our homes would need to have connections of around 1 Gbps. Niel points to the growing quality of televisions and notes HD streams are going to have to get better. “We as a company have to begin now,” Niel says. “You don’t stand still and sell a product after the fact. We want to get people to use it.”
For now, Niel wants to get 20 million folks to use his mobile service.
Update: According to the news release from Free.fr, the company will offer:
* For 20 Euros a month, unlimited calls to France and 40 countries including France and USA, unlimited text messages, unlimited MMS and unlimited Internet though in the same breadth it says limit over 3G/3G+ is 3 Gigabytes. Current Free subscribers (Internet or TV) you pay 16 Euros a month for
* For two euros a month (no commitment) 60 minutes of voice and 60 SMS messages. 5 cents per minute above the call. Current Free subscribers (Internet or TV) you pay absolutely nothing for 60 minutes of calls and 60 SMS messages.
Photos by Rodrigo Sepúlveda Schulz
I admire the service that Free.fr is providing to the French market. Wish we had service providers in the US who realize that the premium channels and VoIP packages are not something to fleece customers with. Service provides in the US have long been taking the customers for a ride in their role as middlemen.
The rise of OTT services for entertainment and broadcast of sporting events over the Internet will serve to further dumb down the service providers like Comcast and AT&T. Free.fr seems to have seen this coming very early and adapted to the situation. But, I think the US service providers are too greedy to ‘kill the goose laying golden eggs’ for now. They will eventually have to follow up with what Free.fr is doing now.
Om, what do you feel about the applicability of the Free.fr model to the US market?
I think our legislative system is not going to allow this to happen as the incumbents are too much in control of policy, not to mention the spectrum and last mile connectivity.
Democratic flat rates at 19, 99 euros / monthly fees announced by Xavier Niel: on stage Live + recorded on http://dai.ly/yHdJKK (.fr)
Thanks Alex.
my Iphone 3gs is from Orange does it have to be unlocked for Free.Fr
i wish someone in south africa took a similar approach, the government owned telecom is making any isp paying insane rates here so no internet is cheap or even close to those offerings
SAGuest — 8ta.com have 10GB per month for ZAR200 pm (18 EUR pm). That is fantastic. Who needs hotspots if you have 3G.
Yes, 8.ta offers a great deal. But its restricted to certain area’s in south africa mainly the large cities.
For those interested in it, here is the final offer by Free regarding their mobile services:
For 19.99€ per month (15.99 For Freebox subscribers) (no contract) you get:
Unlimited text messages
Unlimited MMS
Unlimited calls to over 80 countries (didn’t say if it’s only landlines or mobile numbers too)
Unlimited internet with a 3GB fair use (via 4M WiFi hotspots as well)
Possibility to block this plan in order to be sure not to go over the 19.99€ price
Calls to France from US: 0.5€/minute (1.10€/minute for Orange)
As for Mobile Phones: keep yours or buy a new one (completely unlocked for any carrier network!)
Apple iPhone => They have an exclusive contract. You pay the phone on 12, 24 or 36 months, your choice.
If you go for 36months, add 19.99€ to your monthly plan. If you go for 24 months add 29.99€ per month.
They are still 1.8x cheaper with their tariff plan and an iPhone than the other carriers
Also: They now offer a basic 2€ plan with 1hr voice and 60 SMS for poor people (and free for freebox subscribers)
Thats great.I wish we could something like in Turkey. You can get 1gps to home but only the internet , you need another box for iptv free.fr’s everything in one box is awesome.
the 2€ plan is not only for “poor” people, but also for people who don’t need to be connected 24h a day, and don’t use the mobile phone that much.
Just an update: Free just officially announced its plans:
– One offer is 19.99 euros (about 25-28 dollars) with 3GB of internet, unlimited calls and texts. If you already use Free as your ISP, you’ll get this for 17.99 Euros
– an offer for 2 euros per months (3.5 dollars), with 60mn and 60 texts (perfect for old relatives and people using their phones less and less)
They just crucified the competition!
If you already use Free as your ISP, you’ll get this for 15.99 Euros
Thanks. I just woke up (in San Francisco) and getting an update from the company soon.
The discount for subscribers to Free’s Internet service only applies to the first SIM as indicated in the price brochure.
The official press releases are here http://www.iliad.fr/presse/2012/
Thanks for the link.
I’m gonna subscribe to Free’s offer It’s really a great thing !
These new offers are not that great in fact.
– Unlimited phone calls > nobody calls more than 2 hours nowadays anyways. And in France all triple play subscribers get free phone calls from their internet box. Seriously, who needs unlimited calls…? it’s the net, BBM, sms, Facebook chat generation now
-Free international calls ? > Again you can do that from your Home Internet bo on every provider now. It’s not like i’m calling abroad every day…
-3Gb of data transfert > Again who uses that I got Tomtom GPS and Spotify streaming along and can’t get over my 1 Gb limit. Again no one actually needs that
– 19,99 euros/month is OK, but not THAT better than the already existing 19,99 euros plans offered by Orange for example
Considering how bad their introduction was on the ADSL market with LOTS of troubles, architecture problems and over pricing phone line support… I surely will not jump into this right
I actually have 1 GB per month, and believe me, it’s short.
For the unlimited phone calls, it depends. I won’t call more than 3-4 hours in a month. But I know some users who will.
Do you have the link for the Orange offer u talkin about ? Is it exactly the same ?
About the ADSL offer, I was a user of Orange, SFR ( when it was Neuf) and Free. Ain’t no chan ge, some will have troubles, some won’t.
Obviously you, you must be working for Orange…
These new offers are not that great in fact.
– Unlimited phone calls > nobody calls more than 2 hours nowadays anyways.
… this is a mobile solution ! Guess what ? you can actually do the same and not being stuck at home !
-Free international calls ? >
… this is a mobile solution ! Guess what ? you can actually do the same and not being stuck at home ! (bis)
-3Gb of data transfert > they give you more and cheap…
– 19,99 euros/month … for 20euros you can get a 2 hours plan or less… with no data and not unlimited calls/sms…
– Introduction was on the ADSL market with
You should know that they are using orange network when their own network is not availiable…
Thanks to Free, we have the best triple play plan prices in the world and it seems to be as well for mobile plans…
Free, 2 euros for an 1 hour plan and 15/20 for all included ! How can you even discuss this ?
Em… don’t take me for a fanboy i’m working for SFR in France !
Of course, from the perspective of one that never moves away from home, why own a mobile phone? I understand you think the offers are not that great for you, which is not to say your feelings apply to the majority of the population.
If we are to judge by the traffic on the free mobile web site and on its competitors, a huge number of people are scrambling to:
– unlock their phones
– unsubscribe from their current operator
– subscribe to the free mobile service
so this does seem to sound like a very good proposition to many…
In france we don’t have to unsebscribe from our current carrier before subscribing to the new one : the new one does everything to transfer your number for to his network (and it’s free).
It’s a lot better than the 19,99 euros plans offered by Orange !!! For that price you only get 2 hours and 500 Mo of data with unlimited text and MMS. Moreover their network is based on Orange one (70%) so that they won’t have architecture problems (unless orange have them too) !!!
Why you have to bring your iPhone? It won’t work on Android? That one sentence lost respect for the article and author.
+1
Actually it make sense as Niel’s presentation was clearly pro-Apple. Of course it will work on Android but there is no specific partnership for any Androidphone as far as we know.
Interesting article but some terminology issues:
Femto cell and Nano cell seem to be used interchangeably. Shame they don’t call them Micro cells (one millionth) since they will number in the millions and it corresponds better with Macro.
Also, is it really just iPhones or smartphones in general?
They are going to allow you to bring your own phone – though from the looks of it, it has to be WiFi enabled.
Great article, thanks!
Concerning Femto cells, can’t they integrate the Femto functionality into the omnipotent set-top-box? That would be a really interesting tech.
Om,
This article was amazing and beautifully written. I’m excited about Free.fr’s launch and my question would be has Mr. Niel thought about expanding internationally to spur competition in those markets?
His answer on international expansion was pretty basic: we are a French company and that is what we are going to focus on.
How I wish someone would push the envelope in a similar manner in Canada! Instead our providers just copy US methods and then make them even more restrictive because their is still so little competition for the giants, Bell and Rogers. The CRTC which regulates telecommunications has coddled them for years and simply doesn’t understand that more providers will result in more and better services at lower cost. Vive la France! (No I am not from Quebec!)
We both know it wont happen .Rogers and Bell lobby way too much. Our only chance is other companies like Mobilicity but their service is limited .
Lobbys were pretty huge in France too! Among the 3 old concurrents,
one (FranceTelecom-Orange) was the old public monopoly, facing loads of HR issues, an
it’s not 30 € its 19.90 € & 15.90€ for free users 😀
“unlimited Internet though in the same breadth it says limit over 3G/3G+ is 3 Gigabytes
Actually it is unlimited internet with limited bandwidth above 3Go.
Proud to live in France!
Free is the best for adsl and mobile now in the market.
This is great for a large country like France (more uneconomic areas of service). Here in Denmark 20 euros gets you 10 hours of talk, unlimited sms/mms and 10GB of data. Many people use it as their only internet connection. We lack services like Netflix to drive bandwidth growth (copyright issues).
LTE and 3G everywhere. 25% VAT.
VAT included in 20 euros if anyone in doubt.
3 SIMs included. I believe 10-20% exclusively use 3G/LTE, growing very fast.
When do you think that Free will arrive to Spain? I guess this offer can make happy too much people 😉
it’s great that in France there’s 1 guy who wants to revolutionize the market, unfortunately other countries don’t have such luck
the thing is they are big in fibre. in my country all the telcos have extensive fibre. who will do this? its practically suicide
I am surprised no one mentions Google has this model down the road. Google seats on top of dark fiber like nobody’s business. As for Om’s assertion, well, a fact, the giant Telcos in US will not let that happen. These oligarchs better convert or forever remain conquered. Cheers.
Currently looking for a good cell phone subscription in France, I read this article with great interest! Only I am an idiot when it comes this, so I did not understand all of it. Could somebody clear this up for me, maybe: what are the internet conditions for the €20 subscription more exactly? How much is “unlimited Internet though in the same breadth it says limit over 3G/3G+ is 3 Gigabytes”? I intend to buy an iPhone to be able to skype-call and use ‘viber’ to other iPhones in Denmark (from France), so it is important for me that the internet condition is good.
Thank you in advance,
Olga
hello it is possible bay SIM card for mobile internet in france (I am form Slovakia and I will go to france for 2 weeks and I need internet connection for my mobile phone and iPad too
thanks
oliver (answer to searchweb@searchweb.sk)