Cut-price internet back on the agenda

PLANS to offer cut-price broadband internet to low-income families in France are back on the government's agenda, after the move was announced 12 months ago and nothing happened.

Business minister Frédéric Lefebvre has called a meeting next Thursday with the main French internet service providers and will ask them to "come up with proposals" to get the idea off the ground.

The tarif social could offer all-in-one internet, phone and TV for less than €20 a month, or basic standalone broadband for €10.

These were the target prices announced this time last year by prime minister François Fillon. He said at the time that the first packages would be offered within six months, but Le Figaro says the proposal has been "a dead letter" ever since.

Mobile phone operator Orange has offered a special rate for 4,500 people on income support since 2008, with a basic monthly phone contract capped at €10 a month.

France Télécom offers a similar service for 327,000 low-income families, offering cut-price landline rental at €6.49 a month since 1997. Similar schemes exist for electricity and gas suppliers EDF and GDF.

Internet providers say they are already doing their bit by contributing to the Fonds de Service Universel, a central fund that aims to address inequalities in web and phone access.

The latest announcement comes three weeks after the government upped the rate of VAT on "triple play" all-in-one broadband, phone and TV packages in France, an increase that many operators have passed on to customers.