The emergence and growth of broadband in the French info-communications system of innovation

In this chapter, we focus on the emergence and growth of broadband in France. The issue is concerned with important questions in the domain of industrial dynamics. Broadband is of course related to the mature telecommunications industry, since one of the major competitor in this activity is the incumbent telecoms operator, France Telecom. In this perspective, the emergence and growth of broadband is deemed to be highly determined by the role that France Telecom has played/still plays within the French Info-communications System of Innovation (FISI). But broadband is also a radically new activity, supported by a new technological trajectory that significantly changes the FISI, and thus requires a deeper investigation