Proprietary provider modems 1/3

Introduction

Over the past 10 years in France there has been a digital coup. I remember how in the distant zero I bought 20 hours of Internet access and basically waited for the page loads. And it cost pleasure about 30 euros.

Then the operators began to offer ADSL technology and an incredible 512 kb / s, and then 1 mb / s. And they all connected via modems from Sagem and Alcatel, which are brand or providers. But in 2003, Free appeared, and offered its modem, which went down in history.

So what is historical and new he proposed? In this series of articles, I will tell you, and to begin with I will outline the general situation.

Connections

Historically, in France, almost every family has a telephone line. This explains that over 95% of Internet connections go through ADSL. The speed is from 2 to 24 mb / s.
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The rest are respectively connected via FTTH and Coax. The latter exists only thanks to one operator, who at one time distributed only paid TV channels. And optics has been under development for a little over two years, and is available to residents of the capital. The speed with this connection reaches 100mb / s.
So who are these providers?

Providers

The main providers are Orange (formerly France Télécom), SFR, Free, Bouygues by ADSL and Numéricable by Coax.

On Orange, less than half of the market is accounted for, and Free and FIS divide by less than a quarter. Bouygues and a half percent and Numbering about a percent.

Well, what are their suggestions?

Offers and service

All offers from operators are similar. All offer Internet up to 24 Mb / s, a hundred channels and voip telephony with a phone number and unlimited calls. Below are the rates, between the operators the difference is 1-2 euros:

• The simplest internet connection at 24 Mb / s costs 16 Euro
• Previous + Phone and HD TV costs 32 euros
• Previous + unlimited calls to mobile 38 euros
• Same as previous but FTTH or cable for 41 euros. But provided that you have stretched optics, or coaxial

Over 160 channels, including RTR Planeta.

Unlimited phone calls are distributed to "green" countries, more than 100 destinations.


Choosing your provider, or more precisely the operator, is not so easy. One of those support paid, but technologically steeper. Others have excellent support, and will install everything for free, but some channels do not. There is a choice for convenience and in accordance with their knowledge of IT.

How do they manage to provide all this to their customers?

Modems

Since 2003, a revolution occurred when the Free provider developed its Freebox 3 in 1 modem. It connected via a filter to the telephone line and distributed the Internet via USB or Ethernet. A telephone and a TV with a SCART chip were connected to it.



The phone number could be chosen and it was activated during the day, and everything else worked out of the box. Over time, Freebox has improved including a router, wifi, print server, brandmauer, file server, etc.

The remaining operators also began to produce their modems, in the wake of the Freebox, came out a Livebox from Orange, Neufbox from SFR, BBox from Bouygues, Cablebox from Numéricable.

Well, and then?

Conclusion

And further, I want to describe the Freebox v5 modem that I have. And then make a comparative article of the main provider modems that are now being offered to customers.

What's the point?

PS

The point is not to describe the situation, but to inspire ideas to other providers. And maybe in the near future the same pieces will appear in the former union.