The long-awaited, government-commissioned report to outline France’s strategy in implementing its own digital information highway finally emerged during NetWorld+Interop after months of preparation. But the report, authored by Gerard Thery, former minister of communications, said little new. It simply re-emphasised what a great force for change the information superhighway represents and stressed that the network will not become a reality without a vast range of viable and essential services. A communique from Prime Minister Edouard Balladur’s office said the National Assembly would debate the economic conditions needed for developing information services for the network. The office has also, predictably, set up yet another inter-ministerial committee that will define the economic conditions necessary for the development of services and set out a strategy for launching network pilot experiments. The committee is scheduled to meet with the prime minister in February, at which time it will determine the exact aim, cost, timeframe, conditions and players in network experiments. In an interview in La Tribune-Defosses, Thery offered some more comments. He said that the French version of the information superhighway should take its inspiration from the Minitel viewdata model. Everybody reasons in terms of television programmes. The problem is not to have 500 or 1,000 television channels, but to have an unlimited number of services. Multimedia is, before everything, about service and the Minitel model must serve as a reference. The market of information superhighways involves the transposition of the Minitel economy. And in the development of this offering, the software investment is essential. Neither should the universe of audio-visual be forgotten. he said, noting that France Telecom lags behind Deutsche Telekom in deploying fibre optic cable, but that it is a lag that is completely recoverable. But Pierre Lescure, president of Canal Plus, was derisive about the report. He took to task France’s ‘technocrats’ in L’Express, saying at a time when the entire European continent is getting organised, are getting ready to debate a report about the electronic highway they were holding the country back. He also blasted France Telecom as responsible for France’s lag in developing a digital audio-visual infrastructure. There is not a single liberal country in the western world that would tolerate such a monopolistic public service, so omnipotent and paralysing as to risk making the country run fatal delays, he said.
