Skip to main content

Ensuring seamless user experience — how mobile networks held up during the Paris Olympics opening ceremony

Get our latest reports straight to your inbox. Subscribe
Share this article

The opening ceremony of the Paris Olympics was a global spectacle, attracting athletes, spectators and media from around the world. However, millions of visitors arriving in Paris for the duration of the games present significant challenges to French mobile operators as they seek to meet the increased demand for data while ensuring a good end-user experience. In this analysis, Opensignal examines how French networks held up under the intense demand during the opening ceremony, focusing specifically on two key metrics of user experience — Reliability Experience and Average packet loss.

Key findings:

  • Network challenges in high-demand areas: The opening ceremony route saw increased packet loss, especially in densely populated tourist areas, underscoring the need for strategic network enhancements in high-traffic zones.
  • Spike in packet loss: The average packet loss for Orange users across Paris spiked to 1%, three times higher than the previous week, another indicator of substantial network strain during the event.
  • Network experience declines on Orange and Free Mobile: Orange and Free Mobile users in Paris experienced a significant drop in Reliability Experience vs. the week prior to the opening ceremony, highlighting the network's struggle under heavy load.

Consumer Impact: Network strain
Leading up to the Olympics, French telecom operators like Orange—the official communication partner for the event—carried out extensive network upgrades to support the anticipated increase in data usage. Despite the surge in data traffic during the opening ceremony, our data shows that the average quality of experience stayed at acceptable levels.

The opening ceremony route, which extended from the Austerlitz bridge to Trocadéro following the course of the Seine, presented unique challenges distinct from the rest of the city. This route passes through several well-known tourist spots and densely populated areas with a high concentration of users and data usage. To better understand the geographical distribution of network strain, we created a heatmap of packet loss around the opening ceremony route and compared it with that from a week ago.

 

The areas away from the opening ceremony route that were showing high packet loss a week ago exhibited lower packet loss during the ceremony, while the majority of areas around the route that previously had lower packet loss saw increased packet loss. This visualization highlights areas where users observed increased packet loss rates around the opening ceremony, underscoring the challenges faced by network operators and the impact on user experience.

Consumer Impact: Packet Loss Analysis

During a high-profile event like the Paris Olympics opening ceremony, where users expect seamless connectivity to share their experiences, stay informed and engage with digital content, packet loss can lead to widespread dissatisfaction and impact the perceived quality of the network. Even a 1% packet loss can significantly impact the end-user experience, leading to slow data transmission and dropped calls. Therefore, packet loss is a crucial measure of network integrity. 



Leading up to the Olympics, French telecom operators like Orange—the official communication partner for the event—carried out extensive network upgrades to support the anticipated increase in data usage. Despite the surge in data traffic during the opening ceremony, our data shows that the average quality of experience stayed at acceptable levels.

Opensignal data shows that on the day of the opening ceremony, the average packet loss for our users on Orange in Paris rose to 1%, over three times higher than the average packet loss observed just a week ago. This is a clear indication of the strain on the network, largely due to heavy network usage compounded by data-intensive activities during the event. Bouygues also experienced a 0.1 percentage point increase in average packet loss, while Free Mobile and SFR observed a decrease. 

Consumer Impact: Reliability Experience

Opensignal's Reliability Experience metric measures how consistently users can connect to and maintain a connection with their mobile network to successfully carry out typical activities such as streaming video or downloading files. This metric takes into account factors such as network availability, signal strength, data connectivity, task completion, and sufficiency.


Opensignal data reveals mixed performance across all four national networks during the Paris Olympics opening ceremony:

  • Free Mobile: Our Free Mobile users in Paris experienced the most significant decline in Reliability Experience, dropping 5% from 911 points one week ago to 867 points (on a 1000-point scale) on the day of the opening ceremony. 
  • Orange: Users on Orange also observed a significant decline in Reliability Experience, albeit less than that seen on Free Mobile. Orange’s score dropped 36 points (4.2%), resulting in the lowest score of the four French operators. This shows the impact of the load on Orange’s network despite significant investments and network upgrades.
  • Bouygues and SFR: In contrast, users on Bouygues did not see an impact on their Reliability experience, while those on SFR reported slight improvements. 
     

These differences highlight the varying impacts of network load and the operators' preparedness for the event.

 

During the Olympics 2024, a robust mobile network is essential for communication, safety, and overall fan engagement. At venues it enables spectators to stay connected, report emergencies, access real-time updates, share their experiences and stream spectacular moments live on social media. Beyond the game venues and tourist spots in Paris, reliable connectivity is also crucial for navigating traffic, finding parking, and commuting on public transport, while also allowing fans and spectators to explore nearby businesses and receive event-related promotions.

 

According to Ericsson’s recent report, 5G users in markets like France are up to three times more likely to switch providers because of poor network experience at major venues such as stadiums, arenas, and transportation hubs. Consequently, operators that offer robust mobile network performance in these locations hold a distinct competitive advantage, while those offering relatively poor experience are at risk of customer churn. To address the demand, Orange deployed hundreds of new 5G antennas across key venues, including the Stade de France, to handle the massive expected influx of data traffic. Orange also established a private 5G network, providing dedicated and high-speed connectivity for broadcasters and media, ensuring stable and high-quality transmission of live events. Additionally, it offers temporary 5G access to all its 4G customers during the Games, helping to distribute the network load more efficiently. Similarly, Bouygues, Free Mobile and SFR have invested in optimizing their networks by enhancing capacity and expanding coverage, especially around Olympic venues and key tourist locations.

 

Ensuring seamless connectivity across the entire city was crucial during the opening ceremony and will remain important throughout the Olympic games. 

Please subscribe to our newsletter to stay up to date on our event coverage, or follow us on Linkedin.