Advanced Television

Bouygues becomes IPTV player with BBox

September 17, 2008

From Sotires Eleftheriou in Paris

French mobile telephone operator Bouygues Telecom (part of the Bouygues construction group which owns TF1) is to launch a triple/quad French mobile telephone operator Bouygues Telecom (part of the Bouygues construction group which owns TF1) is to launch a triple/quad play service called BBox on 20 October. The triple play offering is broadly similar to the other triple play services on the French market and pitched at the same price point, E30 per month. However, Bouygues lays its stress on the ease of use and the technical features of the service. The B-Box, manufactured by Thomson, is in two parts, an ADSL/router/wifi/VOIP box and an HD compatible TV box. The latter features a built in 120 GB hard drive, which can be activated on payment of an optional E 5 a month. It will feature over 50 channels and optional access to the Canal Plus and Canal Satellite platforms. The telephone service will include unlimited calls to land lines in over 60 countries. For an additional E10 a month subscribers can have 3 hours of calls to mobile phones; until January 2009, subscribers to Bouygues Mobile (except pre-pay) get 6 hours. Broadband alone costs E20.

Bouygues has built up a telecom network of its own, mainly by acquiring portions of network that came up for sale following the recent spurt of mergers in the French broadband sector.

Categories: Articles, Broadband, IPTV, OTT