

The rise of Xavier Niel says a lot about French business  - vibhavs
http://www.economist.com/people/displaystory.cfm?story_id=14402214

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ovi256
There is a small mistake in the description of the Free subscription : the
broadband is 20 Mbits per second, not 2.

Personal remark : this guy is freaking awesome, always seeking to disrupt
markets to lower prices. The Free triple-play subscription (unlimited
broadband, cable TV + free phone calls to most of the world) is so cheap it's
a freaking no-brainer. Before, it used to be an exercise in comparison
shopping : what operators are available in my area, are they good, what are
the prices. Now, you just get Free and stop worrying. They have a bad
reputation for customer service, because, just as Google, they like to
automate everything (heard that their back-office is huuuuuge).

If he could get the license and disrupt the mobile telecom market, that would
be great.

About the Freebox, the set-top box they provide to subscribers : as if
everything they do is not hard enough, they designed custom hardware and
software for their combined set-top box/cablemodem. Ok, the UI is not Apple
level, but it provides lots of awesome stuff : a TiVo like DVR, video
broadcasting, FTP and HTTP servers, a Wifi (802.11-N !) access point, a router
and more.

~~~
budu3
So how does he manage to cut his prices so low? Does he use automation and
other methods to improve efficiency?

~~~
ovi256
They have an online self-care system - you use it to signal a problem and the
system runs diags on the Freebox, phone line etc. Yup, completely automated.

Unfortunately, if your problem falls between the cracks (something new, that
is not in their list of common troubles) then it can get tricky, and you need
to replace the Freebox. They'll replace it for free, of course, but it's still
a hassle make the demand, get the delivery (UPS usually), install the new
Freebox, send the old one in. This is all completely automated again, and the
Freebox warehouse is outsourced to a specialized company. Free only has
engineers : hardware, software and (lots and lots of) telecom guys. BTW, one
of their top VPs wore a teeshirt saying "Go away, or I will replace you with a
small shell script". So yeah, these guys love automation, they are hardcore
engineers, nerdy to the core.

Anecdote : some time ago they launched a new version of the Freebox. It was
supposed to be for new subscribers and replacements. People (especially geeks,
but mostly everybody) asked for replacements, because the new version had a
bigger harddrive and some new features. Free had to replace many more
Freeboxes that forecasted. So many of the consumer reports among the lines of
"My Freebox broke so I had to have it replaced" should be more like "I
invented a problem to get the free upgrade".

Furthermore, you can replace the HDD with a bigger one or connect an external
HDD - that's how you recognize a geek in Paris - his ADSL modem is tuned.

~~~
budu3
Amazing. Thanks for the info. I think I love the company already. The t-shirt
was funny. The free trademark is also clever. The freebox is also an
interesting piece of equipment <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freebox>

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Tiktaalik
Coincidentally a similar thing is occurring at the moment in Canada.

[http://www.theglobeandmail.com/globe-investor/the-minnow-
in-...](http://www.theglobeandmail.com/globe-investor/the-minnow-in-the-shark-
tank/article1293594/) "Canada's telecom giants are fighting a pitched battle
to keep Globalive out of the wireless pool. But CEO Anthony Lacavera and his
Egyptian partner are determined to bring competition to the industry. Is this
the beginning of the end for the cozy wireless establishment?"

Unsurprisingly the three existing companies are trying to lobby the government
to keep this new entrant out.

~~~
gsmaverick
Unfortunately the government when selling new spectrum also sold large amounts
of it to the existing incumbents. The prices are so high here that the
incumbents shouldn't have had a chance to bid. Canada is among the highest in
mobile rates in the Western world. Here's hoping Globalive will shake things
up.

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yardie
I hope he succeeds because the prices for mobile service is atrocious compared
to internet and landlines. I fail to see how the 3 operators are never brought
up on charges of market collusion. But Sarkozy is best friends with two
(Bouygues/Vivendi) and Orange/FT has it's unbreakable union. I can see why
it's happening, but they just busted Apple/Orange exclusive contract, the same
courts should be going after the big 3 operators.

The freebox is quite nice. I might have gone with them if the customer support
wasn't so horrible. A friend dropped them for Wanadoo/Orange because they own
the lines and are quicker on the support problems. But they do cost more. I
ended up with Neuf, who was bought up by SFR. If they don't get their act
together and put fibre in my building I will drop them for free. I just
received a letter from free stating that fibre is now available in my
neighborhood.

If their phones are as flexible as the freebox then this will be very
interesting.

~~~
demallien
Hang in there - I'm working on the replacement for the neufbox right this
minute, and it is a _very_ cool piece of kit.

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peter_severin
For 29,99€ you get:

28 mbit/s Free calling to 90 nations HDTV 100 channels and more pay channels
Video on demand remote access to the video recorder Access to 3 million wifi
spots in the country

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elai
Come to Canada, starting in Quebec! It's even worse here.

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sielskr
"If he succeeds in disrupting another business, the establishment may have to
acknowledge him."

"He forced the incumbent cellular providers to innovate."

The article relies too heavily on tropes like these, IMHO.

