French Data Network (FDN) is a French non-profit organization ( association loi 1901) founded on June 2, 1992. Its purpose is: "the promotion, use and development of the

Internet The Internet (or internet) is the Global network, global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a internetworking, network of networks ...

and

Usenet Usenet (), a portmanteau of User's Network, is a worldwide distributed discussion system available on computers. It was developed from the general-purpose UUCP, Unix-to-Unix Copy (UUCP) dial-up network architecture. Tom Truscott and Jim Elli ...

networks in accordance with their ethics, in particular by encouraging non-commercial use for research and educational purposes", "the defense of public liberties on the Internet and the defense of the neutrality of telecommunication networks".Nouveaux statuts
/ref> FDN is the oldest

Internet Service Provider An Internet service provider (ISP) is an organization that provides a myriad of services related to accessing, using, managing, or participating in the Internet. ISPs can be organized in various forms, such as commercial, community-owned, no ...

in France still in business, offering

PSTN The public switched telephone network (PSTN) is the aggregate of the world's telephone networks that are operated by national, regional, or local telephony operators. It provides infrastructure and services for public telephony. The PSTN consists ...

dial-up Dial-up Internet access is a form of Internet access that uses the facilities of the public switched telephone network (PSTN) to establish a connection to an Internet service provider (ISP) by dialing a telephone number on a conventional telepho ...

(since 1992),

ADSL Asymmetric digital subscriber line (ADSL) is a type of digital subscriber line (DSL) technology, a data communications technology that enables faster data transmission over Copper wire, copper telephone lines than a conventional voiceband modem ...

(since 2005),

VPN Virtual private network (VPN) is a network architecture for virtually extending a private network (i.e. any computer network which is not the public Internet) across one or multiple other networks which are either untrusted (as they are not c ...

(since 2013) and

FTTH Fiber to the ''x'' (FTTX; also spelled "fibre") or fiber in the loop is a generic term for any broadband network architecture using optical fiber to provide all or part of the local loop used for last mile telecommunications. As fiber opt ...

(since 2022) access to its members. It is a founding member of

Gitoyen Gitoyen is an Groupement d'intérêt économique, Economic Interest Group based in France gathering several companies and non-profits to share efforts to provide internet services to non-profits. It is effectively a telecom operator, providing ti ...

, a non-profit tier 2 operator. FDN has also been politically active, taking a strong position against the

HADOPI law The French HADOPI law (, English: "Supreme Authority for the Distribution of Works and Protection of Copyright on the Internet") or Creation and Internet law () was introduced during 2009, providing what is known as a graduated response as a mean ...

. During the internet blackout in some countries during the

Arab spring The Arab Spring () was a series of Nonviolent resistance, anti-government protests, Rebellion, uprisings, and Insurgency, armed rebellions that spread across much of the Arab world in the early 2010s. It began Tunisian revolution, in Tunisia ...

, it proposed RTC services to anyone able to access international phone calls. It has a strong position against censorship and in favor of

network neutrality Net neutrality, sometimes referred to as network neutrality, is the principle that Internet service providers (ISPs) must treat all Internet communications equally, offering users and online content providers consistent transfer rates regard ...

. FDN is a founding member of the FDN Federation.

References

External links

* {{Official website Non-profit organizations based in France Internet service providers of France