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

201–210 of 245 posts

Re: France reaches 94.9% fiber coverage in 2026

#201

Post by phtrivier »

BrandoElFollito wrote: post #173
basilgohar wrote: post #140

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I suspect the parent commenter agree with you : broadband access DID cost a lot of money - and in a sense, the project was rushed, and an unexpected demonstration that public / private partnerships with the wrong incentive structure can lead to as bad (if not worse) result than what a public monopoly would have done.

But yeah, my mum at the border of la Creuse had a better internet access than me for a few months :D

Re: France reaches 94.9% fiber coverage in 2026

#202

Post by rescbr »

Always42 wrote: post #184
bastawhiz wrote: post #169

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How is it inefficient? This is the whole point of government: how much economic activity is happening over 56k? Virtually none. You could make the same argument for paving the street and repairing the sidewalk in front of your house . Chances are the property taxes from the average single family home don't cover just the basic street repairs, let alone all the other services your local government provides. Yet we do…

If we assume $20k to run the fiber, you could do starlink for a long time. There are internet options other than fiber. Unless there is no other options in France than fiber. What if France got a contract with starlink? Brought the cost down of that.

Why do you assume $20k as the cost to run the fiber?

The cost is the contractor's hours to get up a ladder on each electricity pole from the closest PON splitter to the customer's home, plus the fiber itself which is peanuts at volume.

Everything else (permits, pole rent, etc) is accounting money that can be negotiated. If there's a strategic national program to fiber up the whole country, this could be exempted on a pen's stroke, or depreciated in many decades.

Re: France reaches 94.9% fiber coverage in 2026

#203

Post by asdff »

PaulHoule wrote: post #157
rconti wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In the US, there are various websites for checking service availability based on zip code. You can fairly easily find local ISPs in a region and then use their own service checker to see if service is available at a specific address -- in other words, the same method you'd use if you already lived there and wanted to order service.

The usual complaint is that those sites are not accurate. Like back when I had 2Mbps DSL sites like that claimed I was served by 15+ ISPs that did not serve me.

The actual ISP sites are accurate though.

Re: France reaches 94.9% fiber coverage in 2026

#204

Post by oliwarner »

jazzkingrt wrote: post #143
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.

Isn't starlink and its competitors a cheaper way for rural places to get fast internet?

I think we pay something like €30/month for 2gbps with ~8ms latency back to the UK.

I think that answers that.

Re: France reaches 94.9% fiber coverage in 2026

#206

Post by rootusrootus »

geniium wrote: post #190

[starlink enters the room] Ooh we just got 99.9% coverage

Compared to a wire, Starlink is low bandwidth, high latency, and does still have short outages. I use it for my backup, but I would never choose it as my primary even over Comcast.

Re: France reaches 94.9% fiber coverage in 2026

#207

Post by [deleted] »

hocuspocus wrote: post #113
cassepipe wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am clearly not talking about the last meter issue, I am talking about when the fiber is already in the home and sits unused. That seems like a pity (yes not a huge deal) But maybe I misunderstood your point ?

Where do you think is the last meter if not in the home?

[deleted]

Re: France reaches 94.9% fiber coverage in 2026

#208

Post by cassepipe »

hocuspocus wrote: post #113
cassepipe wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am clearly not talking about the last meter issue, I am talking about when the fiber is already in the home and sits unused. That seems like a pity (yes not a huge deal) But maybe I misunderstood your point ?

Where do you think is the last meter if not in the home?

You wrote last meterS and re-reading your comment you obviously mean the connection between the street source and the home.

Which is unrelated to the point I was making

Re: France reaches 94.9% fiber coverage in 2026

#209

Post by ffsm8 »

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…

> What's so wrong if something is done to benefit the regular people once in a while?

Usually, this is money taken from people that aren't well off either... So it's not a clear cut positive.

Wherever your society decides to do such is obviously not for me to judge.

As a single almost 40yo person myself I'm significantly annoyed by all the money the state takes from my paycheck to sponsor people who quiet literally would spit on me and hold me in contempt. And while i ain't poor, my netto wage is lower then some of those people get From the state. But I'm not French, so no opinion on this particularly case.

Re: France reaches 94.9% fiber coverage in 2026

#210

Post by well_ackshually »

Always42 wrote: post #184
bastawhiz wrote: post #169

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How is it inefficient? This is the whole point of government: how much economic activity is happening over 56k? Virtually none. You could make the same argument for paving the street and repairing the sidewalk in front of your house . Chances are the property taxes from the average single family home don't cover just the basic street repairs, let alone all the other services your local government provides. Yet we do…

If we assume $20k to run the fiber, you could do starlink for a long time. There are internet options other than fiber. Unless there is no other options in France than fiber. What if France got a contract with starlink? Brought the cost down of that.

Yeah, I'd absolutely _love_ that my tax money goes to funding a US company. What could go wrong with depending on a hostile country for someone as basic as Internet ?

If I found out my government blew 20k to slobber on Musk's balls instead of using that money to create work for our own people, I'd personally go blow up that antenna.

Post reply on HN