France reaches 94.9% fiber coverage in 2026 • Hacker News Board

Re: France reaches 94.9% fiber coverage in 2026

#221

Post by bestouff » Wed, Aug 26, 2026, 9:25 PM UTC

ffsm8 wrote: post #209

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…

> 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 w…

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

Well in France I tend to think the taxes are pretty progressive, so the money isn't taken from poor people. But yes, somehow the ultra-wealthy people always manage to escape what they owe.

Re: France reaches 94.9% fiber coverage in 2026

#222

Post by Nekobai » Wed, Aug 26, 2026, 9:27 PM UTC

sph wrote: post #216

Symbiote wrote: post #194

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Average speeds are higher in the UK than Italy. My brother in the UK has 1Gb/s fibre in a village of less than 100. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_Internet_...

Well I guess I must have been unlucky in 13 years in 5 flats around London with an average broadband speed of ~150 Mb/s

No, you're totally right. I'm currently in Zone 4, maximum _theoretical_ speed is 67 Mbps.

Re: France reaches 94.9% fiber coverage in 2026

#223

Post by xboxnolifes » Wed, Aug 26, 2026, 10:02 PM UTC

qwe----3 wrote: post #155

DrBazza wrote: post #151

The Uk could have been in 100% in the 90s and saved us decades of copper theft. https://www.techradar.com/news/world-of-tech/how-the-uk-lost...

> saved us decades of copper theft We don't have to work around crime! This is a defeatist attitude! Accommodating crim subsidizes it! It does not solve anything

Oh no, accommodating crime by upgrading a country's internet infrastructure... and removing an avenue of crime...

Re: France reaches 94.9% fiber coverage in 2026

#224

Post by audidude » Wed, Aug 26, 2026, 10:57 PM UTC

ricardobayes wrote: post #127

audidude wrote: post #57

It's awesome. I moved to France from Portland, Oregon this year. I went from 1gb to 8gb fiber for half the cost in France.

That's a pretty interesting move. Any other experience you are willing to share about France compared to Portland? I'm actually curious and have always considered Oregon to be one of the nicest places in the US.

Very much depends on what you look like.

I'm white, but my wife is not. The moment you step out of Portland the racism is palpable. And even in Portland you have a bunch of white people that try so hard to not be racist that they come off super awkward and weird.

It's a thing.

Not that France isn't, but it's different. Some white guy was cat-calling my wife the other day in Mandarin. She is not Chinese...

Re: France reaches 94.9% fiber coverage in 2026

#225

Post by rsynnott » Thu, Aug 27, 2026, 12:32 AM UTC

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?

We’re on about our third attempt at rural internet in Ireland. The first two involved wasting a lot of money subsidising dubious cellular and satellite stuff which was arguably marginally good enough 20 years ago, but not now. Thankfully on the third go the government decided to stop screwing around and just do 10gbit-capable fibre to all rural premises.

Ultimately if you half-ass this you just end up doing it again later.

This is one reason I’m kind of baffled by spacex’s valuation; its long term market would seem to be countries who are too poor to build out fibre. It’s unclear that there’s a trillion dollar industry in that.

Re: France reaches 94.9% fiber coverage in 2026

#226

Post by rsynnott » Thu, Aug 27, 2026, 12:40 AM UTC

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.

It’s not uncommon for cities to be worse than rural areas now. In Ireland, nearly all rural premises have 10gbit-capable fibre available (will be literally all by early next year) but parts of central Dublin are stuck with VDSL. Retrofitting in cities can be quite slow and expensive.

Re: France reaches 94.9% fiber coverage in 2026

#227

Post by rsynnott » Thu, Aug 27, 2026, 12:44 AM UTC

dguest wrote: post #48

pbkompasz wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

FCC abolishes gigabit speed goal, suggesting it is unfair to Musk's Starlink

FCC: high standards are unfairly prejudicial against subpar infrastructure. > The Carr FCC said last year that the gigabit goal “may be unreasonably prejudicial to technologies such as satellite and fixed wireless that presently do not support such speeds.” I don't know if this is so much a handout to Starlink, seems like a way to win the race by moving the finish line.

Bloody hell, what’s next? “The requirement for 300km/h for high speed rail is unreasonable prejudicial to technologies such as steam”.

Re: France reaches 94.9% fiber coverage in 2026

#228

Post by rsynnott » Thu, Aug 27, 2026, 12:48 AM UTC

P-Nuts wrote: post #122

ahartmetz wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think FTTC is just called (V)DSL in most places. IME it's uncommon to call anything less than FTTB (basement / building) fiber.

In UK FTTC is called “fibre” and FTTP is called “full fibre”. I only have FTTC. To be honest it’s enough for my use cases but I will upgrade if FTTP ever becomes available.

In Ireland, Eircom, way back in the day, called ADSL _exchanges which had a fibre connection_ (versus microwave) “fibre-powered broadband”. This lead to confusion when they launched their VDSL product, and even more confusion when they launched their FTTH product.

Re: France reaches 94.9% fiber coverage in 2026

#229

Post by fra » Thu, Aug 27, 2026, 12:56 AM UTC

bestouff wrote: post #221

ffsm8 wrote: post #209

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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 w…

> Usually, this is money taken from people that aren't well off either... So it's not a clear cut positive. Well in France I tend to think the taxes are pretty progressive, so the money isn't taken from poor people. But yes, somehow the ultra-wealthy people always manage to escape what they owe.

Less progressive than in the USA, believe it or not…

Re: France reaches 94.9% fiber coverage in 2026

#230

Post by tzs » Thu, Aug 27, 2026, 2:57 AM UTC

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?

If you need to get internet to rural places quickly then such services are great.

But if you are trying to get something that could last for decades and handle the expected growth in the speed and bandwidth that the average family might expect then fiber is the way to go.

You don't necessarily need to go right to every rural house at first. There are many places where fiber to a terrestrial wireless access point and wireless to the homes would work well.

Fiber can then be expanded out from those access points later.