Worldnet

World-NET (www.worldnet.fr) was a Fournisseur of access to Internet for the general public in France with FranceNet. Its activity began in 1994 and stopped in 2002.

The service was creates by Sebastien Socchard, under the name of SCT World-NET the June 15th 1994 following a voyage to the the United States or the access to Internet started to become extensive. Á this time, only Oléane, first supplier of professional access, existed. No service was offered to the private individuals.

World-Net succeeded the EURL SCT (Security Concept and Technology, created the October 9th 1988), a company of computer security. Very quickly, Philippe Langlois, Pierre Séguret, Franck Arnal and Franck Landais came to help Sebastien Socchard with the launching of the service. The tariffs of connection amounted to 80 F of the hour, then the November 11th 1994, the formula evolved/moved to 240 F per month. The Web site of World-Net was accessible to the addresses worldnet.fr and worldnet.net.

September 15th, 1994, for the first time in France, a kit of connection was distributed to tens of thousands of specimen with the magazine InfoPC and the newspaper Le Monde Informatique of the group IDG. Three hours of connection free were offered. Thereafter, of the million CD were distributed in several French magazines.

In October 1994, World-Net had to face the arrival of 1.000 new subscribers, which caused the saturation of the equipment. Worldnet was however indicated “better supplier of access to Internet” by Expert PC the same month.

In the two years which followed, the kit of connection WorldNET Access making it possible to connect itself to Internet was distributed in more than one about thirty books of the editions Sybex and Mc Milan. The kit was presented initially in the form of a Disquette, then thereafter in the form of CD-ROM.

Pioneer on the emerging market of the Internet general public, World-Net innovated by creating the first kit of connection and while launching an offer of unlimited fixed price of connection to 99 F. It was also the first to offer in France “perso pages” and to propose the reception of fax by email.

Chronology

In 1995, Xavier Niel, which had lent the buildings of its company since the departure becomes the Business angel of World-NET and takes share with the capital. Without taking part in the management of the structure, it will bring its councils throughout the history of Worldnet.

In February 1996 World-NET proposes an access at the national level (under the 36.64.40.00 number) with a varying flow from 14.400 to 28.800 bps.

In May 1996, Sebastien Socchard, manager of World-NET, and Rafi Haladjian, chairman of FranceNet, is stopped and placed as a police custody for “detention of images to character paedophile”, with the reason which their waiters gave access to the most significant Newsgroups of Usenet. This business will launch the polemic on the responsibility for the suppliers of access to Internet, which was satisfied until now to ensure of the technical services to connect their subscribers to the network without censure nor filtering. The Non-lieu will be marked two years later. The law will be then amended so that the managers of operators Internet are not held any more for persons in charge of all the contents of Internet.

the January 21st 1997, the access to World-NET is directly proposed in the million computers sold in France with Windows, while clicking on the icon Connection Internet .

June 1997, World-NET exceeds the 10.000 subscribers.

November 1997, connection to 56.000 bps is proposed.

the December 2nd 1998, World-NET supports the boycott against the too high tariffs of France Telecom.

August 1999, the customers can record a domain name in .com, .net or .org via the service of lodging MyWeb .

the November 3rd 1999, World-NET proposes a connection ADSL to 512 Kbps in reception and 128 Kbps in emission, of which the fixed price with 130 F per month.

March 2001, World-NET launches BookMyName .com, a service of deposit of domain names in .com, .net .org or .biz.

World-NET, which carries out CA of 22 franc million and a result of 3 million, is the last independent operator. It is resold in May 2000 with the operator telecom Kaptech (become Neuf Telecom) for nearly 40 million euros before ceasing any service the May 31st 2002.

See too

External bonds

Interview with Sebastien Socchard

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