- Xavier Niel born in 1967, in Maisons-Alfort, in the south-east of Paris. His father is a lawyer and his mother is an accountant. In 1990 he bought a Pink Minitel service, Fermic Multimedia, which he renamed Iliad. The start of a success story.
- With Free, Xavier Neil, on September 18, 2002, launched his Freebox V1 to subscribers. A new Internet TV and Telephone offer is launched with this ADSL box.
- Today, Iliad, with Free, enters the world of Optical Fiber with 700GB per second. It's very high speed compared to the beginning! A coding school is created: school 42 associated with the Free group. Free is the fourth player to arrive on the mobile phone market.