France Offers Loans To Boost Web Speed

The French government will provide €2 billion ($2.88 billion) to improve the country's high-speed Internet networks, as part of a national loan program to boost the economy through investment in infrastructure.

Prime Minister Francois Fillon said Monday the government would make a series of low-interest loans to telecommunications groups, to encourage them to develop fiber-optic networks outside major cities. Telecommunications operators are already deploying fiber optic networks in heavily built up areas, such as Paris. But they have been slow to extend these to the provinces, though regular high-speed broadband is available in most of the country. "We are at the dawn of the era of high-speed Internet and fiber-optic networks," Fillon said in a speech. "However, 500,000 French people don't have access to high speed Internet at all. This is not acceptable."

The French government wants high-speed Internet connections in smaller cities and rural areas in order to boost productivity. French telecommunications operators have been slow to build the new fiber optic networks in these areas, as there are fewer potential customers in the provinces.