Monday, June 2, 2008

Wireline, Wireless, Broadand All Up in France

There's some interesting data emerging about wireless substitution. To wit, wireline subscriptions in some markets do not appear to be declining as wireless grows.

To be sure, share is shifting to new competitors. But that's a different question than abandonment of wireline accounts in favor of wireless-only service.

France added around 675,000 new broadband users in the first three months of this year to boost the country’s high speed internet user base from 15.551 million to 16.225 million, reports the country’s regulator Arcep.

On an annualised basis, the French residential and business broadband market climbed 18.6 percent from 13.676 million at the end of March 2007, the report said. ADSL continues to be the overwhelmingly popular access technology, accounting for 15.475 million access lines, with the remainder made up by cable, FTTx or satellite services.

Arcep also reported a strong rise in wholesale access lines in the period under review, up 338,000 lines to 7.825 million. France had also unbundled 5.521 million local loops by the start of April 2008, with some 4.012 million subscribers taking fully unbundled services.

In other findings, mobile subscriptions also continue to grow, while fixed lines also were up. So much for wireless substitution.

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