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Last time, Orange dominated our awards table, winning six out of seven of our national awards and in this reporting period it successfully defended all six. In addition, the sole award to elude its grasp — 4G Availability — is still contested by SFR and Bouygues with neither operator being able to secure an outright win for this measure of the mobile experience.
Since our last report, Free Mobile’s Download Speed Experience score has risen by an impressive 4.6 Mbps (22.7%). Meanwhile, the average overall download speeds seen by our SFR and Orange users rose by 1.4 and 1.1 Mbps, respectively, while Bouygues’s score fell by 0.2 Mbps. As a result of these changes the gap between Free Mobile and SFR or Bouygues has fallen from at least 4.8 Mbps to at least 1.3 Mbps. In addition, Orange’s lead over its rivals has increased from the 15.2 Mbps it commanded over second-placed Bouygues in our last report to at least 16.2 Mbps.
While our Orange users were the only ones to observe an increase in the proportion of time that they spent connected to 4G services — 4G Availability — it was quite modest, with the operator’s score increasing by just 0.5 of a percentage point to 86.7%. In contrast, our users across all four operators saw their 4G Coverage Experience improve by 0.3-0.5 points.
SFR and Free Mobile have seen their Upload Speed Experience scores improve by 0.2 Mbps (2.5-3.5%), while Bouygues saw its score rise by just 0.1 Mbps (1.3%). In contrast, our Orange users saw their average overall upload speeds fall by 0.2 Mbps (2%).
In this, our second look at the French mobile network experience, we've analyzed our data gathered in the 90 days from the start of August 2020 to see how France’s four national operators — Bouygues, Free Mobile, Orange and SFR — measure up.
Our awards table is completely unchanged from our last report. Orange has retained its grip on all three of our experiential awards— Video Experience, Games Experience, Voice App Experience — along with three other awards: Download Speed Experience, Upload Speed Experience and 4G Coverage Experience. The only one of our awards that remains out of Orange’s reach for now is 4G Availability, which continues to be jointly won by SFR and Bouygues.
While our users have reported lower scores across our experiential metrics than last time — with a couple of exceptions — on the whole the mobile experience has proven resilient given the unique challenges operators have faced in 2020. All four operators have kept the same ratings as they earned in our previous report for Video Experience and only one operator — Orange — has dropped down a category for Voice App Experience and even then it has merely drawn level with its peers. In addition, our users on Free Mobile and SFR’s network saw their Video Experience scores improve by 1.9 and 0.1 points, respectively.
France is late to the 5G party, but its arrival is imminent given that ARCEP has completed the auctioning of the 3.5 GHz band to mobile operators, with some pretty significant strings attached. The regulator has recently said that 5G networks could begin commercial operations this month (November).
Once 5G is live, those consumers who invest in 5G smartphones can expect much faster download speeds and are likely to consume more data per SIM than those who stick to their 4G-only devices because of the increased capacity that the new 5G wireless spectrum offers. However, rolling out a new generation of mobile technology is the work of years and it will take a while before our French users observe the same sense of reach for 5G that they currently do with 4G.
| Mobile Experience Awards France | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
November 2020,
France Report
|
O
Orange
|
S
SFR
|
F
Free Mobile
|
B
Bouygues
|
Video Experience
| ||||
Games Experience
| ||||
Voice App Experience
| ||||
Download Speed Experience
| ||||
Upload Speed Experience
| ||||
4G Availability
| ||||
4G Coverage Experience
| ||||
|
Mobile Experience Awards Winners
|
November 2020,
France
|
|---|---|
|
Video Experience
|
O
Orange
|
|
Games Experience
|
O
Orange
|
|
Voice App Experience
|
O
Orange
|
|
Download Speed Experience
|
O
Orange
|
|
Upload Speed Experience
|
O
Orange
|
|
4G Coverage Experience
|
O
Orange
|
|
Mobile Experience Awards Draws
|
November 2020, France
|
|---|---|
|
4G Availability
|
S
SFR
B
Bouygues
|
|
Video Experience
Additional Metrics |
O
Orange
|
S
SFR
|
F
Free Mobile
|
B
Bouygues
|
|---|---|---|---|---|
| in 0-100 points | ||||
|
4G Video Experience
| 76.6 (± 0.18) | 71.3 (± 0.26) | 71.8 (± 0.25) | 72.7 (± 0.24) |
|
3G Video Experience
| 49.8 (± 1.36) | 41.7 (± 1.38) | 31.1 (± 1.41) | 47.1 (± 1.54) |
| 4G Video Experience | in 0-100 points |
|
O
Orange
|
77 (± 0.18) |
|
S
SFR
|
71 (± 0.26) |
|
F
Free Mobile
|
72 (± 0.25) |
|
B
Bouygues
|
73 (± 0.24) |
| 3G Video Experience | in 0-100 points |
|
O
Orange
|
50 (± 1.36) |
|
S
SFR
|
42 (± 1.38) |
|
F
Free Mobile
|
31 (± 1.41) |
|
B
Bouygues
|
47 (± 1.54) |
|
Games Experience
Additional Metrics |
O
Orange
|
S
SFR
|
F
Free Mobile
|
B
Bouygues
|
|---|---|---|---|---|
| in 0-100 points | ||||
|
4G Games Experience
| 70.7 (± 0.46) | 65.8 (± 0.48) | 67.5 (± 0.48) | 65.4 (± 0.52) |
|
3G Games Experience
| 37.4 (± 0.41) | 33.7 (± 0.23) | 36.5 (± 0.27) | 35.1 (± 0.25) |
| 4G Games Experience | in 0-100 points |
|
O
Orange
|
71 (± 0.46) |
|
S
SFR
|
66 (± 0.48) |
|
F
Free Mobile
|
67 (± 0.48) |
|
B
Bouygues
|
65 (± 0.52) |
| 3G Games Experience | in 0-100 points |
|
O
Orange
|
37 (± 0.41) |
|
S
SFR
|
34 (± 0.23) |
|
F
Free Mobile
|
36 (± 0.27) |
|
B
Bouygues
|
35 (± 0.25) |
|
Voice App Experience
Additional Metrics |
O
Orange
|
S
SFR
|
F
Free Mobile
|
B
Bouygues
|
|---|---|---|---|---|
| in 0-100 points | ||||
|
4G Voice App Experience
| 79.8 (± 0.17) | 78.2 (± 0.19) | 77.1 (± 0.20) | 78.1 (± 0.18) |
|
3G Voice App Experience
| 70.0 (± 0.58) | 65.0 (± 0.66) | 66.7 (± 0.48) | 67.1 (± 0.68) |
| 4G Voice App Experience | in 0-100 points |
|
O
Orange
|
80 (± 0.17) |
|
S
SFR
|
78 (± 0.19) |
|
F
Free Mobile
|
77 (± 0.20) |
|
B
Bouygues
|
78 (± 0.18) |
| 3G Voice App Experience | in 0-100 points |
|
O
Orange
|
70 (± 0.58) |
|
S
SFR
|
65 (± 0.66) |
|
F
Free Mobile
|
67 (± 0.48) |
|
B
Bouygues
|
67 (± 0.68) |
|
Download Speed Experience
Additional Metrics |
O
Orange
|
S
SFR
|
F
Free Mobile
|
B
Bouygues
|
|---|---|---|---|---|
| in Mbps | ||||
|
4G Download Speed
| 47.3 (± 0.46) | 28.7 (± 0.30) | 31.5 (± 0.35) | 28.4 (± 0.31) |
|
3G Download Speed
| 4.9 (± 0.12) | 4.2 (± 0.12) | 2.7 (± 0.07) | 4.5 (± 0.14) |
| 4G Download Speed | in Mbps |
|
O
Orange
|
47 (± 0.46) |
|
S
SFR
|
29 (± 0.30) |
|
F
Free Mobile
|
32 (± 0.35) |
|
B
Bouygues
|
28 (± 0.31) |
| 3G Download Speed | in Mbps |
|
O
Orange
|
5 (± 0.12) |
|
S
SFR
|
4 (± 0.12) |
|
F
Free Mobile
|
3 (± 0.07) |
|
B
Bouygues
|
4 (± 0.14) |
|
Upload Speed Experience
Additional Metrics |
O
Orange
|
S
SFR
|
F
Free Mobile
|
B
Bouygues
|
|---|---|---|---|---|
| in Mbps | ||||
|
4G Upload Speed
| 9.7 (± 0.11) | 7.9 (± 0.10) | 7.0 (± 0.08) | 7.8 (± 0.09) |
|
3G Upload Speed
| 1.3 (± 0.05) | 1.2 (± 0.05) | 0.8 (± 0.03) | 1.2 (± 0.05) |
| 4G Upload Speed | in Mbps |
|
O
Orange
|
10 (± 0.11) |
|
S
SFR
|
8 (± 0.10) |
|
F
Free Mobile
|
7 (± 0.08) |
|
B
Bouygues
|
8 (± 0.09) |
| 3G Upload Speed | in Mbps |
|
O
Orange
|
1 (± 0.05) |
|
S
SFR
|
1 (± 0.05) |
|
F
Free Mobile
|
1 (± 0.03) |
|
B
Bouygues
|
1 (± 0.05) |
Collecting billions of individual measurements daily from over 100 million devices globally, Opensignal independently analyzes mobile user experience on every major network operator around the globe.
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