6 ms·

I'm French, and moved to the US a couple years ago. The high price and awkwardness of internet and mobile phone offers here compared to France is one of the big

by GuiA 15y ago

I'm French, and moved to the US a couple years ago. The high price and awkwardness of internet and mobile phone offers here compared to France is one of the biggest tech differences that struck me, as I always had imagined that the US would be far ahead. I still don't own a smartphone (I use Google Voice most of the time at home/work, and a pay-as-you-go phone the rest of time), because the offers and price just don't make sense to me. It's clearly a market that's ripe for disruption, and there are a couple interesting and promising startups in that space, although I'm not sure how likely it is to change given the huge monopoly and control the carriers have consistently had.

baby 15y ago
Same in Canada. Pricing of mobile and internet is crazy compared to France, as well as internet speed... I don't get it.
- babebridou 15y ago
  DSL Internet speed can be explained, according to my brother who lives in the US, with the way that local carriers segmented the broadband network by area. ISPs in the US, maybe in Canada too?, apparently benefit from a quasi-monopoly per location, whereas in France network access is national and guaranteed, meaning that wherever you are in the territory, you can subscribe to any DSL offer from any ISP as a form of public service. As a result, in 2002, Free came up with their disruptive all-in-one 30€/month DSL box. The announcement single-handedly killed AOL France which was offering 45€/month for an inferior service, like the rest of the competition. The survivors had to align their prices, and there was much pain and rejoicing. What I saw this morning could be history repeating itself. I wouldn't be surprised to see Bouygues Telecom (the "weaker" of the three legacy Mobile Carriers) shut down within months. However you put it, Free's offer is both superior on paper and cheaper than the competition. I'm not sure about pricing of mobile plans compared to French ones, it was actually the opposite when I did a quick survey of iPhone plans comparing France's Orange to USA's AT&T offers, I saw something like a 30% cheaper phone and a 10% cheaper plan in the US than in France with napkin maths for taxes. One thing is for sure, we've had quadruple play offers for a while now, and the very low DSL price since 2002 helped a lot with the overall family budget.
  - masklinn 15y ago
    > I'm not sure about pricing of mobile plans compared to French ones, it was actually the opposite when I did a quick survey of iPhone plans comparing France's Orange to USA's AT&T offers, I saw something like a 30% cheaper phone and a 10% cheaper plan in the US than in France with napkin maths for taxes. Yep, France had/has very good broadband thanks to Free, but the mobile scene is one of the worst in western Europe, pretty much every country around it provides better service at better rates. The "Big Three" (Orange, SFR and Bouygues) have basically colluded to keep prices high and offers dreadfully opaque rates (to avoid easy comparisons between providers), and so far MVNOs have not managed to dent this. French MVNOs also tend to be even worse than the big tree for data. Free has both name recognition and a very good offer probably piggybacking on the forces it built as a broadband carrier, I fully expect the big three to get pulled kicking and screaming into finally providing descent service. Or dying. That would be nice too.
mekoka 15y ago
Well, your question includes the answer itself. The US is not the anomaly, France is and for a very specific reason: Free. France would have been in the exact same situation as the US if Free had not been a disrupter. Free isn't the natural byproduct of the sane telecom environment that existed in France at the moment of its inception. It's rather an initiative championed by very very smart people, with very decent ethics. So the question isn't so much, why the US (and Canada) have such gouging prices, but rather what could be done to recreate the Free experiment there.
- sasvari 15y ago
  Is that really the case? In other parts of Europe we don't have Free, and still prices for mobile and internet (speed might be better in a lot of areas as well, especially considering the price/speed ratio) are way more convenient, AFAIK.
  - tonfa 15y ago
    France is still one of the cheapest country for landline internet (the standard price is ~30 EUR/month for 20+ Mb/s, with unlimited landline calls and tv).
    - hessenwolf 15y ago
      France from what I hear is ahead, but the UK, Italy, Germany and Ireland that I know of are nowhere near as backwards as the US in respect of mobile access.
    - albxn 15y ago
      Yes. Thanks to Free. They created the box (internet + tv), the price point, unlimited landline calls.
    - StavrosK 15y ago
      That's about right for Greece as well, if I recall correctly.
    - danieldk 15y ago

by GuiA 15y ago

baby 15y ago

Same in Canada. Pricing of mobile and internet is crazy compared to France, as well as internet speed... I don't get it.

babebridou 15y ago
DSL Internet speed can be explained, according to my brother who lives in the US, with the way that local carriers segmented the broadband network by area. ISPs in the US, maybe in Canada too?, apparently benefit from a quasi-monopoly per location, whereas in France network access is national and guaranteed, meaning that wherever you are in the territory, you can subscribe to any DSL offer from any ISP as a form of public service. As a result, in 2002, Free came up with their disruptive all-in-one 30€/month DSL box. The announcement single-handedly killed AOL France which was offering 45€/month for an inferior service, like the rest of the competition. The survivors had to align their prices, and there was much pain and rejoicing. What I saw this morning could be history repeating itself. I wouldn't be surprised to see Bouygues Telecom (the "weaker" of the three legacy Mobile Carriers) shut down within months. However you put it, Free's offer is both superior on paper and cheaper than the competition. I'm not sure about pricing of mobile plans compared to French ones, it was actually the opposite when I did a quick survey of iPhone plans comparing France's Orange to USA's AT&T offers, I saw something like a 30% cheaper phone and a 10% cheaper plan in the US than in France with napkin maths for taxes. One thing is for sure, we've had quadruple play offers for a while now, and the very low DSL price since 2002 helped a lot with the overall family budget.
- masklinn 15y ago
  > I'm not sure about pricing of mobile plans compared to French ones, it was actually the opposite when I did a quick survey of iPhone plans comparing France's Orange to USA's AT&T offers, I saw something like a 30% cheaper phone and a 10% cheaper plan in the US than in France with napkin maths for taxes. Yep, France had/has very good broadband thanks to Free, but the mobile scene is one of the worst in western Europe, pretty much every country around it provides better service at better rates. The "Big Three" (Orange, SFR and Bouygues) have basically colluded to keep prices high and offers dreadfully opaque rates (to avoid easy comparisons between providers), and so far MVNOs have not managed to dent this. French MVNOs also tend to be even worse than the big tree for data. Free has both name recognition and a very good offer probably piggybacking on the forces it built as a broadband carrier, I fully expect the big three to get pulled kicking and screaming into finally providing descent service. Or dying. That would be nice too.

mekoka 15y ago

Well, your question includes the answer itself. The US is not the anomaly, France is and for a very specific reason: Free. France would have been in the exact same situation as the US if Free had not been a disrupter. Free isn't the natural byproduct of the sane telecom environment that existed in France at the moment of its inception. It's rather an initiative championed by very very smart people, with very decent ethics. So the question isn't so much, why the US (and Canada) have such gouging prices, but rather what could be done to recreate the Free experiment there.

sasvari 15y ago
Is that really the case? In other parts of Europe we don't have Free, and still prices for mobile and internet (speed might be better in a lot of areas as well, especially considering the price/speed ratio) are way more convenient, AFAIK.
- tonfa 15y ago
  France is still one of the cheapest country for landline internet (the standard price is ~30 EUR/month for 20+ Mb/s, with unlimited landline calls and tv).
  - hessenwolf 15y ago
    France from what I hear is ahead, but the UK, Italy, Germany and Ireland that I know of are nowhere near as backwards as the US in respect of mobile access.
  - albxn 15y ago
    Yes. Thanks to Free. They created the box (internet + tv), the price point, unlimited landline calls.
  - StavrosK 15y ago
    That's about right for Greece as well, if I recall correctly.
  - danieldk 15y ago