Freebox

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Freebox

The Freebox is an ADSL modem that the French internet service provider named Free provides to its ADSL subscribers.

Its main use is as a high-end wireless modem (802.11g MIMO), but it also allows Free to offer added services using ADSL as support, like HD television (1080p), video recording with timeshifting capabilities, digital radio and free telephony (via one or two RJ11 according to models).

The Freebox is lent to the subscribers, its value being 190 Euros according to the operator. It is delivered with a remote control, a multimedia box equipped with a 40GB hard drive and accessories (cables and filters). According to this article, at the end of first semester 2005, more than 1.1 million subscribers were equipped with the Freebox. According to Company official's results publication, the 2 million of freebox were reached on september 2006.

The telephony offer via the Freebox offers various services such as free calls between Freebox and towards the fixed numbers in Metropolitan France and also free over 14 abroad countries (USA, Canada, UK, Spain, China etc...) since end 2005.

According to Alexandre Archambault from Free, the Freebox is "nothing other that the return to the fundamentals of the DSL", whose initial objective was "to connect via a single support several types of terminals, therefore several types of services: telephone (telephony), microcomputer (Internet access), television set (television transmission, video on demand, pay per view...), hi-fi system (radios, etc.)".

Therefore, it is much more than a simple ADSL modem, which can only make the interface between a computer and the Internet. Free general conditions describe it as "an electronic instrument being used as interface between the data-processing and or audio-visual equipment of the user and the network of Free Telecom".

[edit] Technical features

Freebox V4

The box, designed by Free, uses a 32 bits RC32355 processor and is managed by an operating system using a derivative of the Linux kernel. It has many interfaces:

An Ethernet port 10/100 Mbit/s full/half duplex;
A USB2 port;
An HDMI port;
An RJ11 jack for the ADSL connection;
An RJ11 jack for phone equipment (two jacks on versions 1 & 2 but only one active);
A SCART (Péritel) socket
An digital audio output RCA, or optical SPDIF starting from version 3;
An extension port of the Serial ATA standard on versions 3 and 4 and Parallel ATA standard on versions 1 and 2;
A host USB port on version 4;

Since version 3, the Freebox can be configured to act as a router. The Freebox version 4 appeared mid-2004 and includes a chipset compatible with the ADSL 2+ standard, as well as a USB port, which will allow, in the long term, the addition of functions such as videoconferencing. The freebox version 5 was out on april 2006 and expand the possibilities of the modem. It is now divided in two box connected together via high speed wifi mimo : the first box provides Internet access, wifi connexion and a phone line; the separated box is a digital video recorder, with advanced TV features like timeshifting, or video on demand.

Now with the v3 (and next), it also provides a videolan client in order to get the movies (in any format read by vlc) stored on the computer and watchable on TV through a playlist selector. This functionality is named Freeplayer.

In the same way, the Freebox (v3 and upper) is able to broadcast TV channel to one or more computer.

Cable, satellite and other speciality television providers

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