France Telecom has finished its experiment stage on Nice. Since February 12th, the fast Internet offer has been spreading to Nice, Cannes and Sophia Antipolis, and it will extend to the other cities of the department.
The wrestling match started with the ART, the regulation authority around the spreading of the ADSL and of the opening to competition on the local loop, is not over. So, France Telecom does not talk so much over the spreading of the fast Internet offer to the urban areas of the French Riviera. Since February 12th, the experiment that has been led in Nice, could be extended to almost the whole city of Nice, to the half of Cannes (the subscribers who depend on the switchboard of La Bocca will be involved only in one year), and to Sophia Antipolis. Late April and early May, Antibes, Cagnes-sur-mer, Saint-Laurent and the area of Cimiez, in Nice, could benefit from the offer ADSL.
Bear in mind that the ADSL technology changes two basic things in the Internet connexion. First thing : a much greater high speed networks with 512 Kbits per second, i.e. ten times more than the fastest modem on the current telephone lines. This opens the doors to the visio-conferences, to the video on request, and to all the applications that require a high speed networks.
Second thing : payment is a fixed sum. It is possible to remain connected 24 hours a day without increasing one's telephone bill (except the really great transfer of data). France Telecom is currently marketing two kinds of packages : Netissimo 1 at 310 F inclusive of tax ( the hiring of the modem is included) with a high speed networks of 512 Kbits per second in reception and 128 Kbits in emission; Netissimo 2 at 700 F inclusive of tax, with a high speed networks of 1 Megabits per second in reception and 256 Kbits in emission.
With a high speed networks (the annoying slowness is over) and a connexion on a fixed sum, the arrival of the ADSL marks the turning point towards an Internet for a general public, in the Alpes-Maritimes. As for Sophia Antipolis, that had not been planned at the beginning as a priority area of spreading, it was finally included in the first service, after several pressures on Paris…