Paris to build citywide FTTx

The city of Paris will select a vendor this year to assist in the construction of a citywide fiber network, the French press reported last week. But it’s unknown whether the city intends to deploy fiber-to-the-premises, fiber-to-the-node or fiber-to-the-curb.

Details on the proposed project are scarce. In a speech last week, Paris mayor Bertrand Delanoe promised a network with faster speeds than that delivered currently by asynchronous DSL (ADSL). Part of the plan includes providing poor Parisians with free Internet access, but some reports have hinted that free services would be offered at lower speeds. However, neither the city nor the mayor have been willing to elaborate much since last week’s announcement.

Pau, a city in Southwest France, currently has 1000 subscribers to an Ethernet-based FTTP network built with equipment from Atrica.