Most telecommunications companies don’t like the idea of a free Internet, generally preferring that we all continue paying for access through fiber and cables. But a few in the industry know that can't last forever. One of them may be Xavier Niel, the French billionaire who in a case of extreme bet-hedging once tried to buy one of America's biggest carriers, T-Mobile USA, in a $15 billion all-cash bid while also investing in a startup that wants to bring free, cable-less Internet to the developing world.
Who is Neil Xavier?
Niel is the majority shareholder in Iliad, a French carrier (France’s second-largest ISP, and third mobile operator) that trades under the brand name Free and is on Forbes Most Innovative Companies list. He is also co-owner of the newspaper Le Monde, and co-owner of the rights of the song "My Way" and owner of Monaco Telecom. He currently acts as Deputy Chairman of the Board of Directors & Chief Strategy Officer for Iliad. His net worth is about $7.4 billion USD. In 1999, when he created Free, a French Internet service provider. The name came from the fact that modem access was really free, which caused some stir among other (non-free) French Internet providers, as well as it raised some questions about Free's business model. In 2002, Free launched a broadband package at a low price (€29.99 per month), which became the benchmark in the market. At the same time, Free developed and launched the Freebox: the first triple-play multi-service box in France. The free modem service had brought to the company a strong potential customers portfolio, many of them switching to the broadband for the sake of comfort.
On Bringing Internet to Developing Country
Niel invested money in a San Francisco based startup named Open Garden, that wants to bring free, cable-less Internet to the developing world with its so-called mesh networking technology aimed at spreading online connections to anyone with a smartphone.
The startup’s FireChat app, in particular, lets users talk to one another "off the grid," in mobile chat rooms without WiFi or cellular reception. Protestors in Taiwan and Iran have used it to coordinate themselves and avoid the state’s prying eyes, and the app may even come in handy to Burning Man attendees in the middle of the desert within the year.
Open Garden wouldn’t disclose Niel’s funding, only saying that he was one of the angel investors to take part in the company’s seed round, where it raised $2 million. Open Garden has also raised $10.6 million in Series A funding, but would not say if Niel had participated in that round.
Open Garden claims that they are connecting the next billion mobile devices, and says that in dense cities it would need at least 7% of the smartphone-wielding population to use it's service in order to connect those users to the web without the need for WiFi or a carrier signal.
Hypothetically, if that kind of technology were to take off it would make many of the services sold by major carriers redundant. Mesh networking is probably years away from getting that sort of mainstream adoption, but Niel seems happy enough to help push its evolution.
On Bringing Tuiton Free School into Silicon Valley
The Tech billionaire is also exporting his unconventional software engineering school to Silicon Valley to train future computer programmers -- for free.
Xavier Niel, who got started running electronic sex-chats opened a branch of his tuition-free Parisian school, 42, in Fremont, California. Universities are too costly, too elitist and aren’t catering properly to the needs of technology companies, Niel had argued.
“Studies in the United States are very expensive, blocking the way for many individuals to receive an education, find a well-paid job, and live the American dream,” according to a statement from 42.
U.S. tech companies have long complained that there aren’t enough qualified American workers to fill the industry’s job gaps. Companies from Alphabet Inc., to Facebook Inc.to Uber Technologies Inc. are fighting to hire software engineers with the right mix of personality, culture and coding chops. Niel’s school aims to help give more students the opportunity to get a debt-free education in highly desirable skills -- “based solely on their talent and motivation,” according to the statement, rather than financial status or education degree.
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| inside view of 42 in silicon valley |
Based on the model Niel launched in France in 2013, the U.S.-based non-profit will grow to 10,000 students within the next five years, the school said, allowing the institution to train information technology talent in large numbers. With the 42 model, based on peer-to-peer learning, students at the 200,000-square-foot Fremont campus, pay no tuition, come and go freely day and night and have neither teachers nor lectures. They’re assigned to programming projects for some of the school’s research partners, and are able to use more than 1,000 top-of-the-line iMac computers connected to high-speed broadband networks and large-capacity storage servers.
The unorthodox teaching methods are already drawing recruiters in France, where the school has 2,500 students. Ametix, a consulting firm, has said it wants to hire all future graduates from the French campus. Software companies including Dassault Systemeshave also expressed interest, according to the school’s representatives.
Niel, 49 and France’s eighth-richest man according to data compiled by Bloomberg, pumped $100 million of his own money to build the U.S. branch of the school, whose name, or number, is a nod to Douglas Adams’s science-fiction series “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.” Niel also invested about 100 million euros ($113 million) in the school in the 17th arrondissement of the French capital, where the first class graduated in September last year. Classes in Fremont began November last year.
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