Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

France reaches 94.9% fiber coverage in 2026

cartefibre.arcep.fr

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

171–180 of 245 posts

Re: France reaches 94.9% fiber coverage in 2026

#171

Post by drnick1 »

epistasis wrote: post #71
alerighi wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In Italy we are at 78% of addresses covered. That doesn't mean automatically that one gets fiber. First at all, if someone doesn't need to download heavy stuff and has a good coverage a 5G SIM with unlimited data (something you can get for 10/15 euros a month) is cheaper than a fiber connection (that starts from 25 euros). Second a lot of people has still FTTC even if it has FTTH, mostly because FTTC offers a speed t…

> a 5G SIM with unlimited data (something you can get for 10/15 euros a month) is cheaper than a fiber connection (that starts from 25 euros). These sorts of prices are unheard of in the US, so incredibly low. Something has gone deeply wrong with US telecommunications.

> These sorts of prices are unheard of in the US, so incredibly low.

The EU also has incredibly low salaries.

Re: France reaches 94.9% fiber coverage in 2026

#172

Post by ericd »

PaulHoule wrote: post #160
manacit wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can use any one of many MVNOs to get unlimited data for around that price, say less adjusted for household income, in the USA. A favorite of mine is https://www.usmobile.com/ which is $25/mo list price (and less if you pay for the year, or if they're having a sale) which will give you Unlimited Data and 1GB a month of global roaming data If you pay $45 you can get unlimited data from Mint for $15/mo: https://www.…

In the U.S. I perceive MVNOs to be a scam. Like Tracfone was OK in 2011 but somewhere afterwards it became normal to go around rural upstate NY and no service and go around NYC and no service and go to LA and no service. This year I got a real phone with a real plan and I have coverage in many places now me I can finally see why people get excited about apps.

That's kind of a broad brush, Google Fi is great, especially the fact that they work mostly seamlessly for the same price in like every country, and they're an MVNO.

Re: France reaches 94.9% fiber coverage in 2026

#173

Post by BrandoElFollito »

basilgohar wrote: post #140
oliwarner wrote: post #120

It's pretty insane. Our family has a holiday home in a fairly mountainous region in central-southern France. Dwindling population, no major tourist activity, wine production. We'd long suffered the worst imaginable 56k but in 2018, the local ISP just ran fibre out to everyone . I think the current service is cheaper than the 56k was too, and far cheaper than any of the 4/5G options back then. What I mean (vis á vis i…

A lot...and I mean a LOT of money...is wasted on things that benefit only a very, very small percentage of elite people in ways that don't translate to benefits to the larger society or regular people. What's so wrong if something is done to benefit the regular people once in a while? One may argue that this also isn't helping "regular people" but I mean the subsidy aspect in particular. I mean, oil companies in the…

> very small percentage of elite people

Except when these "elite" people are inhabitants of a lost hole in the middle of the Creuse and suddenly all children can access Internet in a civilized way. The same way the true elites in Paris have done for some time already.

Re: France reaches 94.9% fiber coverage in 2026

#174

Post by sonar_un »

alerighi wrote: post #44
nsbk wrote: post #16

Spain is at 96.79% (June 2025), up from 94.79% a year before. See [0] I think France and Spain are the best of the big European countries regarding coverage, but also adoption: If we look at the adoption ranking globally, Spain sits fourth at 90%, behind the UAE, China and South Korea and ahead of France at 83.6%. Very few European countries convert coverage into subscriptions that efficiently, and I think it's drive…

In Italy we are at 78% of addresses covered. That doesn't mean automatically that one gets fiber. First at all, if someone doesn't need to download heavy stuff and has a good coverage a 5G SIM with unlimited data (something you can get for 10/15 euros a month) is cheaper than a fiber connection (that starts from 25 euros). Second a lot of people has still FTTC even if it has FTTH, mostly because FTTC offers a speed t…

I am in Italy right now, in fact, spent a lot of time here. I can safely say, the 5G sim coverage is extremely spotty, and when you can get internet from a physical line, it's generally pretty poor speeds. I am pretty sure a lot of that 78% includes 1 bar of LTE coverage, so it's "technically" true.

Re: France reaches 94.9% fiber coverage in 2026

#175

Post by rdiddly »

oliwarner wrote: post #165
ruined wrote: post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Our area is never going to generate the return on internet alone for the isp? maybe. for the gdp? well, i imagine that a lot of highly paid remote labor would love to be located in rural France.

There's so very much rural France. They'd need a colossal influx of well paid remote labour moving to the country to make the sums work. I think the goal is social, to ensure that rural France isn't abandoned further than it was since the 1990s.

Perhaps they've learned from seeing what happened when we in the États-unis did that.

Re: France reaches 94.9% fiber coverage in 2026

#176

Post by BrandoElFollito »

Always42 wrote: post #166
oliwarner wrote: post #120

It's pretty insane. Our family has a holiday home in a fairly mountainous region in central-southern France. Dwindling population, no major tourist activity, wine production. We'd long suffered the worst imaginable 56k but in 2018, the local ISP just ran fibre out to everyone . I think the current service is cheaper than the 56k was too, and far cheaper than any of the 4/5G options back then. What I mean (vis á vis i…

Wonder how many thousands of taxpayer dollars was spent for this. Does not seem efficient.

Zero. We pay out taxes in Euros.

Re: France reaches 94.9% fiber coverage in 2026

#178

Post by sonar_un »

sph wrote: post #92
alerighi wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In Italy we are at 78% of addresses covered. That doesn't mean automatically that one gets fiber. First at all, if someone doesn't need to download heavy stuff and has a good coverage a 5G SIM with unlimited data (something you can get for 10/15 euros a month) is cheaper than a fiber connection (that starts from 25 euros). Second a lot of people has still FTTC even if it has FTTH, mostly because FTTC offers a speed t…

> In Italy we are at 78% of addresses covered > UK is at 85% FTTH [on a sibling comment] Meanwhile I have 1 Gb/s FTTH in an Italian village of less than 100 souls, while I couldn’t reach 300 Mbit/s on copper in London zone 4. I have been surprised at how well they have improved the situation in Italy, and in dismay at how terrible it is in UK.

The UK is absolutely terrible. I've noticed this quite a bit in my travels there.

Re: France reaches 94.9% fiber coverage in 2026

#179

Post by BrandoElFollito »

A friend of mine has family in the middle of nowhere. Actually in the nowhere of the middle of nowhere. Beautiful place but you better not forget to buy the salt.

When I was calling him, he had to climb a tree to get basic voice reception. Data was absent.

And then one day fiber came, together with a nano emitter for GSM. His family life changed considerably. This is real progress.

Re: France reaches 94.9% fiber coverage in 2026

#180

Post by PaulHoule »

ericd wrote: post #172
PaulHoule wrote: post #160

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In the U.S. I perceive MVNOs to be a scam. Like Tracfone was OK in 2011 but somewhere afterwards it became normal to go around rural upstate NY and no service and go around NYC and no service and go to LA and no service. This year I got a real phone with a real plan and I have coverage in many places now me I can finally see why people get excited about apps.

That's kind of a broad brush, Google Fi is great, especially the fact that they work mostly seamlessly for the same price in like every country, and they're an MVNO.

It proves that you can’t trust the claim that “it is the same network”, I mean it is the same network but you may find yourself riding the back of the bus and there is no independent way to check what service you are actually getting.
Post reply on HN