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Iliad is awesome. They own "Free" in France. It's the company that started offering TV + phone + broadband at 30€/month that every other company had to align wi

by ucha 12y ago

Iliad is awesome. They own "Free" in France. It's the company that started offering TV + phone + broadband at 30€/month that every other company had to align with in the mid-2000s. They entered the mobile carrier market two years ago and offered something unheard of - Unlimited calls/text (to France and dozens of other countries) + a few gigs of data for 20€/month and another plan that costs 2€/month. Other carriers had to lower their costs as well. They managed to capture more than 10% of the market in 2 years. I'm very excited to see what they'd be up to in the US; the current oligopoly needs a bit of a shake up... and I don't think there could be a better new for US consumers that Iliad entering the market. Savings for French consumers were estimated to 7B€ and a minister even said that "Free increased the purchase power of the French people by more than Nicolas Sarkozy ever did in 5 years".

Zikes 12y ago
Thank you, that helps to put this announcement into context. It sounds like their business strategy is pretty closely aligned to T-Mobile's, so that's one less thing for me to worry about as a T-Mobile customer.
Gmo 12y ago
Iliad/Free is nice as an "agitateur", but not everything is pink int Iliad-land. Yes, they promised and delivered unlimited calls and texts, but with a launch which was relying on 90% on the main French provider (Orange) and with plenty of technical problems. Same with their box, the launch was much smoother, but lately, there has been a lot of complaints regarding streaming rate for Youtube particularly. In short, they have a lot of followers and supporters, who, sometimes, talk only about their brighter side and never about their darker side. Like pretty much everything else, nothing white or black.
- nakkiel 12y ago
  Regarding the fact that they relied mostly on other operator's networks, I really don't see that as an issue (passed the initial technical glitches). It's business and as long as they sign agreements (and pay!) with other operators for their infrastructures, there's nothing to complain about. They essentially rent the infrastructure.
- bluemx 12y ago
  I agree, everything isn't pink in Iliad-land, but you can expect occasional fuck-ups from any massive service provider. I've been a 'free' home internet customer for a little over 10 years now and mobile customer since they launched their mobile services (jan 2012) I'm a happy customer. My phone bill dropped from an average of 70€ to 16€. Yes, part of the network relies on Orange (Previously called France Télécom, French main carrier). As long as i can make phone calls, send text mssgs and have 3G/4G coverage, i'm ok with that As for the Internet + TV + Landline Phone it's been a blast for the last 10 years. It costs 36€/month for broadband internet, unlimited phone calls to landline phones of over 100 countries + a fantastic box that plays blu-rays/dvds, streams AirPlay, it has an internal 250Gb hard drive which makes a very capable multimedia player (it can download torrents, you can securely have access to the box from any computer so it can be used as a nas etc.. Regarding YouTube streaming, it can a bit slow at times. That's true. But the discussion/debate between service providers vs content providers is interesting. Content providers such as google (youtube), netflix (soon to be launched in france) etc.. make money distributing content, yet service providers are they ones who should support the cost and invest (in other words buy bigger pipes) to stream content to the end users. But maybe that's not relevant in this topic. Anyway, fellow americans, i think Iliad/Free will definitely be good news for you. They shake things up. Here in France, the same pattern happened when they launched the Freebox (home internet package) and again when they became mobile carrier. Competitors dropped their priced dramatically. Competition is always a good thing in a free market. Economics 101 :)
- dvhh 12y ago
  Nice use of the pink there considering the founder past :D
rakoo 12y ago
On the 20€/month plan you get 3GB on 3G and 20GB on 4G. The 2€/month plan: 2hours to mobile+landline on the same destinations as the other one + 50MB of 3G. Oh, and if you're also an adsl/fibre customer, 20€ becomes 16€ and 2€ becomes 0€. They have also popularized the idea of a no-commitment phone bundle. Free [0] really has shaken things in France, and I'm happy to be a client to show my gratitude. [0] www.free.fr
- baby 12y ago
  And you can cancel at anytime without fees. And if you want to use more internet, or call more, or roam, or call foreign countries you can at really small prices. I have the 2€ plan that I use extensively like I'm unlimited and I usually pay 7€ per month in total. And when I travel I can use my phone now :) the prices before for roaming were ridiculous.
- agumonkey 12y ago
  As a tech saavy guy, what I always appreciated is the low cruft of their systems. Free was always trivially simple. They gave you access to simple ftp and mail servers. No need for special programs. It's not the most user friendly but it doesn't add another layer of fat on top of existing systems. Most companies wrap everything in their own shiny interfaces that will appear as added value for non knowledgeable customers, justifying the higher cost. This was something heavily discussed when they entered the mobile market. The old triumvirate tried to blackmail public opinion saying Free will force massive layoffs. But we don't need, useless branded programs, layers of hotliners, or incompetent salesmen in the first place.
hokkos 12y ago
They were awesome, now they give comcast like speed for youtube, apple app store update, google play store update. And there mobile offer is the worst of all.

by ucha 12y ago

Zikes 12y ago

Thank you, that helps to put this announcement into context. It sounds like their business strategy is pretty closely aligned to T-Mobile's, so that's one less thing for me to worry about as a T-Mobile customer.

Gmo 12y ago

Iliad/Free is nice as an "agitateur", but not everything is pink int Iliad-land. Yes, they promised and delivered unlimited calls and texts, but with a launch which was relying on 90% on the main French provider (Orange) and with plenty of technical problems. Same with their box, the launch was much smoother, but lately, there has been a lot of complaints regarding streaming rate for Youtube particularly. In short, they have a lot of followers and supporters, who, sometimes, talk only about their brighter side and never about their darker side. Like pretty much everything else, nothing white or black.

nakkiel 12y ago
Regarding the fact that they relied mostly on other operator's networks, I really don't see that as an issue (passed the initial technical glitches). It's business and as long as they sign agreements (and pay!) with other operators for their infrastructures, there's nothing to complain about. They essentially rent the infrastructure.
bluemx 12y ago
I agree, everything isn't pink in Iliad-land, but you can expect occasional fuck-ups from any massive service provider. I've been a 'free' home internet customer for a little over 10 years now and mobile customer since they launched their mobile services (jan 2012) I'm a happy customer. My phone bill dropped from an average of 70€ to 16€. Yes, part of the network relies on Orange (Previously called France Télécom, French main carrier). As long as i can make phone calls, send text mssgs and have 3G/4G coverage, i'm ok with that As for the Internet + TV + Landline Phone it's been a blast for the last 10 years. It costs 36€/month for broadband internet, unlimited phone calls to landline phones of over 100 countries + a fantastic box that plays blu-rays/dvds, streams AirPlay, it has an internal 250Gb hard drive which makes a very capable multimedia player (it can download torrents, you can securely have access to the box from any computer so it can be used as a nas etc.. Regarding YouTube streaming, it can a bit slow at times. That's true. But the discussion/debate between service providers vs content providers is interesting. Content providers such as google (youtube), netflix (soon to be launched in france) etc.. make money distributing content, yet service providers are they ones who should support the cost and invest (in other words buy bigger pipes) to stream content to the end users. But maybe that's not relevant in this topic. Anyway, fellow americans, i think Iliad/Free will definitely be good news for you. They shake things up. Here in France, the same pattern happened when they launched the Freebox (home internet package) and again when they became mobile carrier. Competitors dropped their priced dramatically. Competition is always a good thing in a free market. Economics 101 :)
dvhh 12y ago
Nice use of the pink there considering the founder past :D

rakoo 12y ago

On the 20€/month plan you get 3GB on 3G and 20GB on 4G. The 2€/month plan: 2hours to mobile+landline on the same destinations as the other one + 50MB of 3G. Oh, and if you're also an adsl/fibre customer, 20€ becomes 16€ and 2€ becomes 0€. They have also popularized the idea of a no-commitment phone bundle. Free [0] really has shaken things in France, and I'm happy to be a client to show my gratitude. [0] www.free.fr

baby 12y ago
And you can cancel at anytime without fees. And if you want to use more internet, or call more, or roam, or call foreign countries you can at really small prices. I have the 2€ plan that I use extensively like I'm unlimited and I usually pay 7€ per month in total. And when I travel I can use my phone now :) the prices before for roaming were ridiculous.
agumonkey 12y ago
As a tech saavy guy, what I always appreciated is the low cruft of their systems. Free was always trivially simple. They gave you access to simple ftp and mail servers. No need for special programs. It's not the most user friendly but it doesn't add another layer of fat on top of existing systems. Most companies wrap everything in their own shiny interfaces that will appear as added value for non knowledgeable customers, justifying the higher cost. This was something heavily discussed when they entered the mobile market. The old triumvirate tried to blackmail public opinion saying Free will force massive layoffs. But we don't need, useless branded programs, layers of hotliners, or incompetent salesmen in the first place.

hokkos 12y ago

They were awesome, now they give comcast like speed for youtube, apple app store update, google play store update. And there mobile offer is the worst of all.