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Freebox

multimedia box provided by Free to its Internet, TV and telephone subscribers

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General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionAug 24, 2026
Entity authorityQ3087306
Source-derived summary

The Freebox is an ADSL-VDSL-FTTH modem and a set-top box that the French Internet service provider named Free (part of the Iliad group) provides to its DSL-FTTH subscribers.

Its main use is as a high-end fixed and wireless modem (802.11g MIMO), but it also allows Free to offer additional services over ADSL, such as IPTV including high definition (1080p), Video recording with timeshifting capabilities, digital radio and VoIP telephone service via one RJ-11 connector (the first version came with 2 such jacks but only one was ever activated).

The Freebox is provided free to the subscribers, its value being EUR 190, according to the operator. It is delivered with a remote control, a multimedia box equipped with a 250 GB hard drive, and accessories (cables and filters). At the end of Q2 2005, more than 1.1 million subscribers were equipped with the Freebox. According to company official's results publication, the 2 million level of Freeboxes were reached in September 2006.

V6 generation, Freebox Révolution

The sixth generation device is called the Freebox Révolution or V6 (Version 6). It was launched in early 2011. It is composed of a pair of devices: the ADSL modem/router and the IPTV set top box/media player. The boxes were designed by Philippe Starck.

Editorial summary

Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Freebox” is multimedia box provided by Free to its Internet, TV and telephone subscribers. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Freebox, multimedia and provided, not as a finished interpretation.

Editorial reviewA practical starting point whose main value is the path it opens into stronger specialist and primary sources. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—2005, 2006, 2011—that can be checked directly. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. For this dossier, Freebox, multimedia and provided is the immediate research focus.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The phrase “multimedia box provided by Free to its Internet, TV and telephone subscribers” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.

Evidence profile

The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 24, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q3087306. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 2005, 2006 and 2011.

Critical limits

A concise general-reference account can conceal disagreements about scope, terminology or the weight assigned to individual sources. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.

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  • Subject orientation
  • Search vocabulary
  • Locating named sources
Verify next

The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Freebox”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Freebox primary sources, Freebox archive and Freebox research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Freebox”?
  2. Which cited source is closest to the event, object or claim?
  3. What terminology or title could unlock a more precise catalogue search?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from Freebox” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.