France benefits from a very efficient transportation network:

Road Network
The road network is the most concentrated in the world and the longest within the European Union consisting of 1,027,183 km 10,000 or which are motorways (2nd in Europe). Road transport still accounts for 76%of total freight transport but combined transport is quickly increasing.

Rail Network
France has 29,213 km of railways. Since 1991, France's TGV has held the high-speed rail record (515km/h). Its network covers 1,281meters and the official commercial speed limit is 300km/h. In 2004, the number of passengers using the main rail network reached 320 million. The network of Ile-de France region was used by 572 million passengers. During the same year, 121 million tons of freight were transported.

The Air Network
Each year, air traffic in France is made up of 100 million passengers and 4.8 billion tons-km of freight. 904 aircraft (planes and helicopter) fly under the French flag. The 2005 turnover generated by the airports of Paris reached 474.1 million Euros with a score of more than 78 million passengers. For the same year, more than 736,600 commercial planes fly through and 860.6 million tons of goods and mail are transported through the airports.

Transport by Sea
France's sea fleet consists of 212 boats weighing in total 4.7 million tons and transporting 340 million tons of freight per year. The French fleet is ranked 28th in the world in terms of tonnage. The French port system counts 7 autonomous ports (owned by the State) which account for 80% of goods traffic, 23 national ports that see 80% of the goods .
Marseille (the biggest French and Mediterranean port) is ranked number 4 in Europe with a freight traffic of 95.5milions tons.

The network is very competitive in terms of price and technical competence. In addition to its long distance and local call services, France Telecom, now Orange offers data transmission, mobile phone, multimedia, Internet access and cable television. The network is 100% digital with 1.3 million km of optic fibers cables. The cost of an international call from France is one of the cheapest in the European Union. A 3-minutes call to the USA costs 0.80 Euros (France Telecom).

For further information, please visit :
EzineArticles & NationsEncyclopedia