| FRANCE | Networked World | ||
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| Country Overview | Network Access | Network Learning | Network Society | Network Economy | Network Policy | Offshore Opportunity | Analysis of Readiness |
Network SocietyPeople and Organizations
Online
Locally Relevant Content
Information and Communication in Everyday
Life
Information and Communication in
the Workplace
As of 2001, the majority of the French using the Internet were educated and male, which indicates that a digital divide does exist. According to Carmel (2001), half of the French many women and less educated, lower income people are not interested in the Internet, believe it is not useful, too costly and too difficult to use. Still, the majority of the French are aware of the Internet and 33% had connected to it. As of 2001, the French community at large was not participating in Internet communication and the participating community was not diverse. This indicates that France might not be ready for the networked world. However, many steps were being taken to change this situation.
The local website content is in French and as more content is developed locally, the concern that the English language dominates the Internet should decrease. By the end of 2002 all schools were expected to be connected to the Internet and all pupils and teachers were expected to have free email. By 2003 there will be free access in libraries, post offices, employment agencies, youth information centers, town halls and voluntary organizations. These will include public areas where users will be able to familiarize themselves with the equipment and will be offered “a free-of-charge initiation into multimedia in the form of a "passport to the Internet and multimedia" (Kaplan, 2001).
Information
and Communication in Everyday Life
Since 1999, the use of ICT’s in the lives of the French has been steadily increasing. The use of telephones, main lines (57.1%) and mobile (60.2%), is high in France. 21.3% of households had Internet access and 35% of households had a computer (eBusiness Forum, 2001 indicators). E-commerce is available, but not widely used. Supermarket goods, travel, insurance and banking are available to consumers but they are just starting to consider e-commerce an option. The earliest adapters seem to be online trading clients of brokerage firms and consumers who like auctions. “French consumers, like their US counterparts, seem to be hooked on online auctions” (eBusiness Forum). Additionally, individual and corporate tax returns can now be filed via the Internet, and most payments can now be made online.
Also contributing to the positive influence of ICT’s in everyday life is France's mobile telephone market which is experiencing tremendous growth. Relative to its European counterparts, France is surging ahead in terms of penetration growth. Penetration nearly doubled in 1996, from 2.3% to 4.2%, more than doubled in 1997, to 9.9%, and nearly doubled yet again in 1998, to 19%. There has been a sharp rise in the number of mobile phones, with 19 million subscribers in January 2000. In the telecommunications sector, Alcatel, a French company is the fourth largest manufacturer of telecommunications equipment, and the world leader in transmission systems and submarine cable networks. France’s innovation in the wireless market offers their users convenience and flexibility.
Information
and Communication in the Workplace
In 2001, only 82% of French businesses had an Internet connection and only 56% had websites, compared with 80% in the UK and 77% in the US. Some examples of progress being made are the initiatives of a major French car manufacturer Peugeot-Citroen in considering joining Internet portals set up by the global car industry and the supermarket giant Carrefour participating in a online exchange for the retail industry.
France launched a five-year Information Technology Program in 1998, which promotes new technologies in small and medium-sized businesses and schools. Small companies using the Internet in 2001 was 39% while it was 92% for larger companies (Carmel, 2001).
France's leadership and competitiveness in the mobile wireless communications has placed their other industries at a great advantage in having mobile applications available to them which could replace some traditional data access with the potential of expanding their global business and allowing their employees the opportunity to be a part to the next evolution of data communication.