France Plans 20-Billion Euro National Broadband Plan

judgecorp writes "France is planning a €20 billion programme to get super-fast broadband to its rural population. About half the funds will come from government investment, and President Hollande believes the work will create 10,000 jobs. Half the population should have fast broadband in the next five years, and the whole country in ten years. France is at a disadvantage for broadband as it is a large country with a lot of rural areas. However, it also has a more left-leaning government willing to take on infrastructure projects."

Comments

France is a large country?

[ozmanjusri]

You call that a large country with a lot of rural areas? Now this is a large country with a lot of rural areas!

Re:France is a large country?

[ozmanjusri]

It's more like the French are doing it because Australia is doing it.

It's cute the way they appreciate and imitate our Aussie culture and style. And they almost get it right, but there's a certain je ne sais quoi they never seem to manage. I'm not sure what it is though.

Re:France is a large country?

[klapaucjusz]

You call that a large country with a lot of rural areas?

By European standards, France is a large country (roughly 1000km across), with some rather sparsely populated areas (the Northern Alps and the Massif Central). France also has a strong tradition of massive, nation-wide infrastructure projects (we've had a comprehensive high-speed train network since the 1980s), so a nation-wide broadband infrastructure is a natural thing to do.

Now this is a large country with a lot of rural areas!

That thing is continent-sized, not country-sized.

Re:France is a large country?

[ozmanjusri]

According to Nationmaster, Australia has 490 million hectares of arable land, while France has 185 million. Environmental Knowledge Systems Australia (EKSA) says that 400 million hectares of Australian land is actively used for agriculture.

Even if France used all of its arable land, it still wouldn't come close to Australia.

Re:France is a large country?

[deimtee]

11 time zones ? pfft. Antarctica has 24.

Re:Cool!

[locater16]

Because... France's economy can't support it, France has a huge public debt and far too much of it's GDP is spent by the government, with it's ultra restrictive labor practices fiber optics everywhere still aren't going to attract startups like Kansas city and Google Fiber, and large government projects such as this usually end costing far too much for what is paid for. Just for starters.

Re:Cool!

[AmiMoJo]

There is nothing wrong with the government providing a lot of employment and spending a lot. Plenty of successful countries that have avoided the global recession do.

In fact this is exactly what they need now: growth. A recession is caused by a reduction in spending due to lack of confidence. Companies don't get orders, don't sell things, so they in turn don't buy stuff from other companies and so on. The government can counter that by creating big contracts.

That is how you get out of a recession. The government spends its way out, and then when times are good again cuts back and reduced the deficit it built up. Over the channel in the UK our government is doing the opposite, cutting back on everything and delaying the recovery as much as possible. They want to drive down wages, cut employment rights and get rid of aspects of the government that could be turned into profit generating businesses. It is exactly what happened during Japan's lost decade, only ours is already projected to last at least 11 years.

France has the right idea. Government debt is not like household or credit card debt, you can't solve it by cutting spending before the economy is fixed.