Internet but no TV deal for €15.99
Low-cost mobile phone company B&You enters broadband market with no minimum subscription time
AN INTERNET and landline package, with no TV channels, costing just €15.99 a month has been launched by Bouygues Telecom’s low-cost subsidiary B&You.
B&You, whose no-frills mobile phone offers compete with those of rival Free, is shaking up the internet market, where most other offers are around €30 a month or more.
B&You’s offer, Box and You, gives 20mb/s via ADSL and comes without any obligatory subscription period. It gives unlimited calls to both landlines and mobiles in France and to a handful of other countries including the USA and Canada; landline calls are included to 100 countries including the UK.
However on top of subscription costs, users are expected to buy a modem, for €35, there is a cancellation fee of €49, and currently the service is limited to people in large urban areas.
Existing B&You customers can, at present, buy a modem at half-price.
Launching the service, managing director Olivier Roussat said: “For us, TV is YouTube”, referring to the fact that people are watching less traditional television and spending more time on the internet, and a subtle dig at rivals Free, who were recently investigated by telecoms regulators Arcep over the fact that they limit YouTube download speeds for their customers.
Only 38% of French people use their internet box to watch television, said Mr Roussat. The others mainly watch online or via digital terrestrial television on modern TVs or with set-top digital boxes.
