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by:
Philippe BAUDOUIN
Gesellschaft für Kommunikations- und Technologieforschung mbH, Oxfordstr. 2, D-53111 Bonn
Tel.: (+49 02 2) 9 85 30-0, Fax: (+49 02 28) 9 85 30-12, Email: info@empirica.com, http://www.empirica.com, http://www.ecatt.com, Contact: Werner B. Korte
Table of Contents: 
2. Introduction
3. Telecoms and Internet in France : policy and market background
3.1.1 Profile of the french Telecom market
3.1.1.1 Presentation of the market
3.1.1.2 Market structure
3.1.1.3 Market figures
3.1.1.4 France Télécom charges
3.1.2 Telecom regulation in France
3.1.2.1 Regulatory authorities
3.1.2.2 Key dates of regulation in France
3.1.2.3 Regulatory highlights of 1999
3.1.3 Internet in France
3.1.3.1 Presentation of the market
3.1.3.2 Regulation
3.1.3.3 Organisation of access provision
3.1.3.3.1 Residential market
3.1.3.3.2 Professional market
3.1.3.4 Internet access market
3.1.3.5 Internet charges
3.1.3.5.1 Free Internet
3.1.3.5.2 Internet access without subscription
4. Information Society, Telework, E-Commerce : iniatives and policies
4.1.1 Information society
4.1.1.1 Presentation of the goverment program
4.1.1.2 Key Dates of the Government Program
4.1.1.3 Details of the government program
4.1.1.3.1 The Prime Minister speech at the Hourtin University of Communication
4.1.1.3.2 The Government action programme of January 1998 (PAGSI)
4.1.1.4 Progress of the government program after one year (31st December 1998)
4.1.1.5 Meeting of the Interministerial Committee on the Information Society - January 19th,1999
4.1.2 E-commerce
4.1.2.1 The situation of E-Commerce in France
4.1.2.2 State of achievment of the goverment action program in January 1999 in the E-Commerce field
4.1.2.3 January 1998 – November 1999 : key events
4.1.3 Telework
4.1.4 Private sector
4.1.5 Educational
4.1.5.1 The government’s position
4.1.5.2 Results of the government program in schools in 1998
4.1.5.3 EDUCASOURCE, The website for educational resources on the Internet
4.1.5.4 EDUCNET, the website for multimedia in education
5. Electronic Commerce and Telework Penetration and Trends : The Main ECATT Findings for France
5.1 Electronic Commerce
5.1.1 Overview of the situation in France
5.1.1.1 Electronic commerce
5.1.1.2 On-line banking
5.1.1.3 Advertising
5.1.1.4 Portal sites
5.1.2 PC and e-mail usage, internet and online services access and use by the population
5.1.3 Online activities with relevance for electronic commerce: online shopping and banking by the population
5.1.4 Barriers to online shopping
5.1.5 Advantages of online shopping
5.1.6 E-mail usage, internet and online services access and use by establishments
5.1.7 E-mail and internet "censorship"
5.1.8 Online and electronic commerce activities by establishments
5.1.9 Barriers to online sales and online procurement
5.1.10 Resume
5.2 Telework
5.2.1 Telework penetration and growth
5.2.2 Number of Teleworkers in Europe 1999
5.2.3 Interest in and potential of telework
5.2.4 Characteristics of telework and teleworkers
5.2.5 Telework practice by establishments
5.2.6 3.2.5 Barriers to Telework
5.2.7 Telework potential, trends, prognosis
5.2.8 Resume
6. Conclusions
6.1 Electronic commerce
6.2 Telework
7. Recommendations
7.1 Government policy
7.2 Pilot projects and call for projects
7.3 Telecoms policy and pricing
Telecom Market
With over 70 fixed services licence having been issued by the end of 1999, the French market is now indisputably fully open.
In January 2000, the market share of rivals to France Telecom raised 19,3% for international and long distance telephony. The evolution trend of France Telecom’s competing operators is showed on the the graphic.
Share of France Telecom’s competing operators in international and long distance telephony
Source : France Télécom
This trend, however, should be put into perspective in that the competition is focused on corporate services and long-distance traffic, while virtually all local traffic (excluding mobile) remains in the hands of the national operator. It is also to be recalled that while France was recognised by the European Union as the good boy of the class in regard to respect of the deadline for liberalisation, it seems to be lagging somewhat behind its major neighbours in areas such preselection, number portability and unbundling.
Several scenarios are taking shape for the opening up of the local loop: installation of more fibre optic local loops in the main business districts, development of telecoms services on cable networks, future allocation of wireless local loop operating licences (due by the end of the first quarter of the year 2000), announced partial unbundling of France Télécom's local loop for offering high-speed services, etc.
Internet market
The beginnings of the Internet in France were probably hapered by the Minitel ; which continues to generate very substantial revenues for France Telecom and service providers. 1998 was the year that saw the real take-off of the Internet in France (IP traffic has increased fourfold and PSTN traffic generated by the Internet has trebled) but France has still not cuaght up with its main European partners (Germany,United Kingdom) while the Internet remains still less used than the Minitel, which has kept its 15 milllion users (but wit a downward trend in traffic).
The residential market is dominated by large players like France Telecom/Wanadoo, Cegetel/AOL Compuserve, Club Internet and Infonie. The majority of Internet connection is over PSTN (from 28.8 to 56 kbps).
Free Internet provided by ISP like Libertysurf, Free.fr or World Online (among a total 15-20 Free Internet providers) are gaining a significant market share in France, with around 25% of the French residential market.
The professional market is dominated by large players like France Telecom (Transpac and Oleane), Cegetel and Uunet France. Beyond these major players, the profesional market is organised around national ISP and regional ISP. The Internet connection is divided between PSTN and ISDN. Internet connection over leased lines is devoted to large companies.
Broadband access (notably ADSL, Internet over cable network) is now commercially provided on a limited number of cities by France Telecom ,some ISP, and cable operators.
Information society : initiatives and policies
The French government launched a national programme for the promotion of information society called PAGSI . One of the main objectives is to democratise the use of ICTs in France and,in particular, the Internet. The programme represents a budget of 5.76 billion FF (around 880 million EURO).
Six priorities have been hightlighted by the PAGSI :
The Government multiplied initiatives to make companies aware of the stakes of information society, particularly with regard to electronic commerce. The last step has been the adoption by the French parliament of the law on digital signature in February 2000.
E-commerce
According to different market studies, e-commerce in France in 1999 represented a market of 1,3 – 1,6 bilion FF (198-244 million EURO). In 2001, e-commerce could represent 1% of retail market. The development of e-commerce sites for French companies is raising considerably and 2000 French companies were active in e-commerce in january 2000 (source web marchand).
The results of the survey and their associated figures are very disapointing for France, as for many criteria France ranks between 8th and 10th. With the exception of some criteria, France appears as one of the few laggards in Europe and the gap in comparison particularly with Scandinavian countries is very significant.
This situation extracted from the ECaTT survey has the advantage of giving a comparable perspective of e-commerce development within the ten European countries, the methodology applied being the same in all these countries.
On the one hand the ECaTT picture of t e-commerce in France is in line with the shared statement of the backward position of France as regards to ICT. Much debate has taken place about whether Minitel has been one of the reasons for this. Those who believe its role has been considerable say that Minitel is an obstacle to the use and acquisition of Internet PCs . Others claim that France was the first to use e-commerce, even before the Internet. At the end of the nineties everybody agreed that France's situation was typical in a sense that the turnover of online sales was the largest one in Europe, thanks to Minitel, and that the transition from Minitel to Internet was well underway. Some analysis has shown that the French backward situation is no longer applicable, as the usage growth rate was among the largest in Europe.
On the other hand, the ECaTT picture of the French position has to be balanced with other market analysis which concludes that the French position is not as worse as EcaTT concludes. For example the results of the UFB-Locabail survey on computerisation and Internet in SMEs which represents a reference survey in France. Since 1998, the survey has broadened its scope and it now has a European dimension which covers i the UK, Germany and Italy along with France. The aim is not to compare results between both surveys but to extract some information concerning the implementation and usage of the Internet within French SMEs. , UFB-Locabail defines SMEs as those businesses with fewer than 250 employees.
the level of PC penetration is quite high for French SMEs and ranks as 94%
61% of French SMEs are connected to the Internet and 72% for the four other surveyed countries (as compared to 47,4% for France in ECaTT and 62,4% for the same four countries (UK, France, Germany and Italy))
75% of the connected SMEs use email and 83% for the 4 surveyed countries.
46% of the French SMEs use Internet for data exchange with suppliers/customers and 56% for the 4 surveyed countries (there is a significant difference between the two surveys as this activity was a key one for France in ECaTT and appears less important in UFB –Locabail).
27% of the French SMEs have a website on the Internet (28% for ECaTT).
25% of the French SMEs claimed to use the Internet for online sales and 22% for the 4 surveyed countries (only 4,7% for France and 8,3% for the same 4 countries in ECaTT survey).
The EcaTT clearly concludes that different European countries are committing themselves to the information age at different rates :
Scandinavian countries are the frontrunner countries for both equipment and usage
Middle-Europe countries, ranging from the UK, Netherlands and Germany have developed a medium rythm in implementing ICTs
Southern European countries (Spain, Italy, France) are lagging behind.
Effort in France has to be sustained to close up the gap.
Telework
Telework is not taking off in France at the same rate as in other European countries. With a current rate of 2.9% of the total workforce and a 10% increase rate between 94 and 99, France remains behind most of the rest of Europe. When talking about telework in France, it is always the same examples that pop up : for instance, in March 2000, IBM France unveiled its large initiative of neighborough centres in theParis region.
The comparison between telework practice and interest is particularly significant in France. A lot of executives agree on the interest of telework but very few launch telework initiatives within their establishments.
In fact there exists a significant gap between the number of organisations practising telework, 32% of French establishments claim to practise regular telework, and the number of teleworkers, 2,9%of the French workforce.
The French are alone in that executives are not interested in permanent teleworking but greatly prefer the idea of alternative telework. Barriers in implementing telework remain high in France and are the same as those expressed in 1994.
So in summary , it is proving difficult for telework to be accepted in France but at the same time the widespread availability of the Internet is providing the opportunity for more and more people to work occasionally at home without being considered teleworkers. It seems as if there is confusion in executives’ and people’s minds as to what constitutes telework.
Therefore the results presented in ECaTT need to be counter-balanced to somehow better reflect reality, especially in terms of unofficial telework practice.
